Paula Radcliffe will take time out to decide whether her pitted path to fourth place in the New York Marathon on Sunday was a wake-up call or mere bad luck.

“Maybe I need to take a long break now and just sort of recharge everything,” she said as she reflected on being beaten by Derartu Tulu, the Ethiopian legend who plagued her early career. “But I don’t feel my body is falling apart. I knew it was a risk coming in and I will have to live with that now.”

The marathon world record-holder remains an intoxicating mix of courage and vulnerability. Her body let her down in New York, just as it had at the Olympics in Beijing last year and Athens in 2004.

There have still been some lipsmacking highs, exclusively in New York in recent times, but there have also been two stress fractures of the lower spine, one of the left femur and, in recent months, problems with both hamstrings.

Radcliffe, with some justification, says that she knows her body best. Others, such as Constantina Dita, the Olympic champion, have suggested that she needs to cut down on her mileage in training. She is 36 next month, but age is not a problem and nor does she have too many marathons behind her. The issue is whether she can cope with the gruelling demands she makes of herself in pursuit of excellence.

“I don’t think this is because of the amount of training I do,” she said. “I know the training it requires to do well at the marathon. I don’t want to go out in the shape not to run my best. I don’t want to do a crap 2:29. I don’t want to make those compromises. There is a certain amount of training you have to do.”

She said the inflammation behind her knee at the bottom of her hamstring just needs time to settle down. “It’s not a career-threatening injury,” she said.

It is career-hampering, but there was encouragement from the New York winners. Meb Keflezighi became the first American to triumph in New York since 1982, just two years after being unable to walk. He had a fractured hip and recalled having to crawl along the floor like a baby. “It took me five or seven minutes just to go from the living room to the bathroom,” he said.

Tulu’s first marathon win since London in 2001 was just as significant for Radcliffe because she plans to have another child. Tulu, a two-times Olympic champion on the track, had her second child three years ago, but returned to winning ways on Sunday at the ripe old age of 37.

“In Ethiopia we have to stop running as soon as we are pregnant,” she said. “The culture does not allow it. Then I had some leg injuries. In competing 20 years I have probably run for half of it.”

Tulu said that she had been forced to change her ways with the passing years. “You gain experience from your training and competition,” she said. “There are things you have to alter, but while your legs might not be as fast as they used to be, your mind gets faster.”

Time is on Radcliffe’s side according to Keflezighi, who is 34 and targeting goals beyond 2012. “It used to be that a marathon runner’s prime time would be in the mid to late 30s,” he said. “If you’re going to compete against the best then you just have to do what is necessary.”

Radcliffe has already told New York’s race director, Mary Wittenberg, that she will be back, but it remains to be seen whether that is next year. The Virgin London Marathon in April is another option, but it may well be that Radcliffe gives her body a break before launching what will undoubtedly be another dramatic comeback.