LONDON (AP) – Paula Radcliffe stopped running with about 6 miles to go in the London Marathon. She was sick and cramping, and intent on making sure there was no repeat of the Athens Olympics.

This time, Radcliffe kept going, unlike last summer. Stomach pains struck the Englishwoman just more than halfway through this race. She stopped alongside a fence next to the course to go to the bathroom, taking 15 seconds to compose herself when she was done.

Then she carried on, winning by more than five minutes and finishing in 2 hours, 17 minutes, 42 seconds on Sunday for her third London Marathon title.

“I must have eaten too much or something wrong beforehand to need to go during a race,” Radcliffe said. “Before I started, I was fine, halfway through I was fine. … I didn’t really want to have to resort to that in front of hundreds of thousands of people.”

Martin Lel of Kenya had a far closer race in the men’s division, although without the anguish. He recorded a personal best of 2:07:26 for the 26.2 miles. World champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco was second, 23 seconds behind, and Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa was third in 2:08:32. Africans took seven of the top 10 spots.

Radcliffe not only won but did so in a women’s-only record, beating her previous record of 2:18:56 and earning a $125,000 bonus. She used only female pacemakers on Sunday. In 2003, she used male pacemakers to set the world record of 2:15:25.

Romania’s Constantina Tomescu-Dita was 5:08 behind and Kenya’s Susan Chepkemei was third in 2:24:00 in a race in which the women started 45 minutes before the men.

Radcliffe dropped out of the Olympic marathon and the 10,000 last August in Athens because of cramps.

“It was similar to Athens, but the rest of me felt good so there was no danger of me being defeated again,” she said. “Today my body was strong to go with my mind. It was totally different. I had no worries about my preparation or my body.”

Radcliffe looked strong from the start and took the lead in the seventh mile. She reached the halfway mark in 1:08:27, 25 seconds slower than her world record pace.

“I should have stopped earlier so I could have kept the pace going better, but it was definitely windier in the second half,” she said.

After her Olympic setbacks, Radcliffe won the New York City Marathon in her first race back.

“There’s probably a lot of people who still don’t get what happened in Athens in terms of its effect on me,” Radcliffe said. “I wasn’t right going into the race. I was trying to convince myself I was OK and trying to convince myself that I could get through it and I could still handle it, but my body couldn’t handle it. It’s totally different when you go into a race and everything’s gone well.”

Among the men, Lel was part of the leading group, which included Evans Rutto; Ramaala, the NYC Marathon champion; world-record holder Paul Tergat; and Sammy Korir.

“I’m very much pleased and very surprised,” Lel said. “It was a challenge for me because I didn’t expect to challenge any of the champions.”

Lel’s only other marathon win was in New York in 2003, the same year he became world half-marathon champion.

AP-ES-04-17-05 1619EDT