If you want to know about loneliness, masochism and near madness of the long-distance runner then talk to Jo Pavey about being bloody-minded with bloodied feet. Like Paula Radcliffe, her more celebrated colleague, the Devonian's successes have been tempered by sacrificing her health on the altar of heroic failure.

Pavey begins her Olympic campaign on Friday knowing she is in one of the toughest events of all, 10,000 metres against a raft of Ethiopians and a rising star from the United States. However, her fourth place in last year's World Championships in Osaka, Japan, which left her prostrate on the track, proved that she can mix it with the elite and revealed her inner will. “I used to have really bad problems with blisters,” Pavey said. “The socks would stick to the bottom of my feet with blood. I had to have them soaked off in the ambulance. Now I put loads of tape on my feet, even for a track session, because once the skin is weakened it can last for months. The pain is horrible.”

Before the last Olympics, Pavey was running in Hengelo in the Netherlands when she tore her calf muscle. The natural instinct was to stop but, needing a qualifying time for Athens, she persevered. “I realised I'd torn it, but I was thinking I might as well finish because I could still get the time and, if I stopped, I'd be too injured to get it afterwards,” she said. “So I got the time and then started drowning myself in the pool. Every time I got out of bed my leg was so swollen that it was agony. I've always had injuries but that one was insane.”

Pavey raced through the insanity to finish an impressive fifth in the 5,000 metres final as Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba, both of Ethiopia, cemented their fledgeling superstar status. Dibaba, a four-time world champion, wants to add an Olympic medal to her collection on Friday, but faces competition from Ejegayehu, her sister, as well as Shalane Flanagan, of the United States.

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Can Pavey break into this close-knit group of rarefied talent? The heat and humidity will hurt but help. “It was around 37C in Osaka on the night of the 10,000 metres with very high humidity,” she said. “My warm-up was trying to nip in and out of an air-conditioned room. It was sweltering.”

Pavey is not naive enough to think that the African contingent will be daunted by heat, but a slow race could benefit her. “I know the heat makes it very painful, but I like that,” she said. “It gives you an opportunity to look at strategy and, if you prepare properly, then it can play into your hands.”

Certainly, the British have prepared as well as possible. Mo Farah, the Londoner born in Mogadishu, Somalia, who runs in the 5,000 metres, says he has been surprised at the poor build-up of other countries. “At last year's World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa [Kenya], some of the Ethiopians did nothing - they came straight from 8,000 feet to sea level - and they just could not do it,” he said.

Pavey's own preparation has sometimes been unorthodox. Her former coach at Exeter Harriers, Tony White, remembers her running with “spikes full of blood” and she developed a reputation for staying out until 3am during the Sydney Games. From getting “tiddly” at the post-Sydney reception at Buckingham Palace to running up Uluru in the small hours during a backpacking trip, there is more to Pavey than the more anodyne of athletes.

Now 34, she has a Commonwealth Games silver medal from Melbourne, but has more often finished fourth and fifth. Yet the talent has been evident from the day she set a British under-15 record at 1,500 metres, while a girl named Radcliffe trailed home in sixth. However, injuries sidelined her for almost two years from 1997 and she has become well versed in hurt.

The parallels with Radcliffe are numerous. Both have coaches as husbands and both are hoping to graduate from bridesmaid status here. Pavey also plans to step up to the ultimate in sporting agony next year and compete in the marathon. For the moment, she is plotting another night of gut-wrenching drama after running more than 100 miles a week in preparation. “I'm under no illusions,” she said. “This is going to be very tough.” It has been the story of her running life.