The dream is alive in the city that never sleeps, but it is no longer an obsession for Paula Radcliffe. The Olympics have been the low points of a gilt-edged career, but she is not staying awake by counting down the days to her last chance.

“I don’t want to wrap myself in cotton wool,” she said of getting through the next 1,000 days. “I have a lot more relaxed feeling about 2012 and that means I’m not resenting my running for keeping me away from the other things I want in my life.”

Is this multitasking marathon legend now less obsessive about a cathartic triumph in London? “Yes, but that does not mean it is not important,” she said before tomorrow’s ING New York Marathon. “I just feel if I put my life on hold for 2012 that’s putting a lot of stress and pressure on me. I’ve learnt that however badly you want something, it doesn’t necessarily have to be yours. And if you tread on eggshells then it can be counter-productive.”

In a fairer world Radcliffe would be the Olympic champion. She is surely the best female marathon runner of all time, her mindboggling world record of 2hr 15min 25sec making Usain Bolt’s 100 metres mark look fragile. The 35-year-old has already won in New York three times. She has had two bad marathons, caught by the inevitable injuries of the long-distance runner, and they coincided with two Olympic marathons; she famously dropped out in Athens and limped home in a pained and heroic 23rd place in Beijing last year after rushing back from a stress fracture of the left femur.

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But she does not need Olympic gold to underline her legend and it is a big ambition rather than an all-consuming odyssey. Hence, she said she will have a year off from championship marathons next year and will hope to have a second child.

“I’ve made no secret of the fact I want to have another child before 2012. But you can’t plan that,” she said. “You can’t say that is definitely going to work out like that. There are lots of things I want to sort out in my head, but if I wasn’t in this career then I think I would have another child already.” She says she learnt lessons from her pregnancy with Isla “about allowing the body to recover a bit more. And you need to allow nine months to a year afterwards to be safe for 2012.”

Radcliffe is hesitant to plan too far ahead. She may still run the 10,000 metres at the European Championships in Barcelona next July, but says nothing has been pencilled in. Her personal life has reiterated the desire to enjoy every moment and, in her words, “be grateful”. This time 12 months ago her mother, Pat, stayed at home instead of flying to New York. “I can’t believe it’s a year and I can’t believe she didn’t tell me,” Radcliffe said. Pat had had breast cancer diagnosed. She arrived in New York yesterday and Radcliffe said: “It’s a relief for her to come out and to be looking so well.”

Grete Waitz, one of Radcliffe’s inspirations and a nine-times winner in New York, is four years into her own battle with cancer. Radcliffe described the Norwegian, who will be in the lead car tomorrow, as “humble but strong”. The same might be said of Radcliffe as she rejected comparisons with Waitz. “I’m a long, long way from that [bracket],” she said.

It would be typical of Radcliffe to follow up such modesty by breaking Margaret Okayo’s course record of 2hr 22min 21sec, set in 2003. She says it is feasible, which would be some achievement given she had surgery to remove a bunion in March and was told it would take six to eight months to recover fully.

She tried to get back for the World Championships in Berlin in August by running the New York City Half Marathon the previous week. “It was nearly but not quite,” she said. “I was losing efficiency and time. I needed to know the endurance and strength were there, and I didn’t have that going into Berlin, but the deciding factor was my hamstring tightened up after the race and I could not risk it.” Tonsillitis then ruled her out of the World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham this month, but she says she is in good shape.

In a week in which Andre Agassi revealed he hated playing tennis, it was refreshing to hear Radcliffe speak of how she will not retire until forced to by her body. “By no means am I saying that the minute I cross the line in 2012 that’s my career hung up and finished,” she said.

There may be life after London because she runs for fun and reduces her sport to a pure passion that overcomes the mental troughs and outrageous misfortune. “Running is what I love doing,” she stated and, suddenly, a complicated journey looked blindingly simple.