ONE day, Paula Radcliffe’s child will be lining up at the start of a race on school sports day. There will be an expectation of something other than the standard egg-and-spoon scuffle.

“There won’t be from us, but there might be from other people,” Radcliffe said. “I’d encourage my child to take part in sport, but not necessarily athletics.” Radcliffe does not believe that her child will necessarily inherit the genetic make-up to become a sports star.

“In terms of competing at the top level, the desire to win has to be in-built,” she said. “In the build-up to 2012 we are looking for talented athletes, but you can find talented athletes who don’t want to prove anything.”

Radcliffe and her husband, Gary Lough, whom she met at Loughborough University, knew that they wanted children. “We’ve known each other for so long and been friends for so long that children were not discussed, we just knew we would have a family,” she said.

However, at 32, Radcliffe began to realise that it was time to see if it would happen. “I had it in my head because of my lifestyle that it might take a few years,” she said. And because of that lifestyle of hard training, which inevitably leads to irregular periods, her doctor did not initially accept Radcliffe’s calculation of how many weeks pregnant she was by the time of her first scan in France.

“We had a funny moment. Gary understands French but is not fluent and so there was some confusion. The doctor looked at the pictures and said, ‘Oh my God, it’s big.’ Gary thought something was wrong, but it was just a case of getting the dates right.”

Radcliffe is not the least concerned that she might have a Christmas baby. Both her own and her brother’s birthdays fall around that time of year. “Neither of us suffered from having birthdays near Christmas. We could have separate presents or if we wanted something particularly big we could choose to combine for one large gift.

“I always appreciated I had a happy childhood and that’s something I’ve always wanted to pass on to my children. We are both from stable backgrounds. You have doubts: will I be a great mother? But I have no doubts about Gary.”

Between them they have four nephews and one niece. After returning from the 2004 Athens Olympics, Radcliffe’s brother, Martin, left her in charge of his baby. “I thought, ‘Oh, no, I don’t know how to change a nappy. Am I allowed to go and have my shower?’”

Lough said: “I was surprised, but in a good way. Our lifestyle is not typical. We move around a lot, so we will have to have help. It’s not something we can do by ourselves. Still, I’ll be the one that’s left holding the baby. It’s going to be a big change, but we are hoping we can carry on as normally as possible.” Has Lough ever changed a nappy? “No.” Will he change a nappy? “Yes. I’m expecting to be very hands-on.”

Radcliffe is not sure if she wants to know the sex of the baby. Lough would like to know. “I hate surprises,” he said. But he accepts it might be tricky if everyone knows. “If he really wants to know then I don’t mind,” Radcliffe said.

She is fluent in French and German and her child will be brought up to be bilingual. Quite where the child will be born is not clear yet because she travels around so much, is based in Monaco and also wants to see her family, who are also spread out, at Christmas time.

Radcliffe was already taking folic acid because she had problems with iron deficiency when younger and she is taking calcium tablets because she is lactose intolerant. She would like to breast-feed, not least because she has suffered asthma and breast-feeding is considered an effective way to protect children from the condition. And as well as giving up the goats’ cheese, Radcliffe has had to decline rare steaks.