World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe will cap her 2005 season at the San Silvestre Vallecana on New Year's Eve in Madrid.
Radcliffe will compete in the 10Km road race which attracts not only an elite entry but around 10,000 fun runners to the Spanish capital.
Indeed the event, despite its global status - top Aussies Craig Mottram and Benita Johnson defeated Paul Tergat and Catherine Ndereba to win last year - is very much a festival as a race.
She has raced only twice since winning her first world championship gold medal in the marathon last August but the 32-year-old, who is spending the Christmas break at home in Loughborough rather than her Font Romeau training base in the French Pyrenees, is back in full training.
The world number one has been troubled by a bronchial problem after Helsinki but that is now well under control.
Radcliffe will certainly find the atmosphere in Spain a lot more relaxed than she is used to, although she can expect to face some world class opponents on the Madrid streets.
"They spray shaving cream and streamers all over you," said Mottram, who overcame the unusual environment to beat Tergat, Kenya's world marathon record holder, 12 months ago.
David Martin Press Association for the IAAF
