A tearful Paula Radcliffe admitted emotion almost got the better of her on her London Marathon farewell.
The 41-year-old returned to the scene of her finest hour to bring the curtain down on a glorious career on Sunday.
The world record holder shouted her thanks to the crowds lining the route and linked hands with a club runner down The Mall as she crossed the line in her final competitive marathon in two hours 36 minutes 55 seconds.
The tears could then flow freely as she embraced her husband Gary Lough and children, daughter Isla and son Raphael.
"Part of the reason that I wore sunglasses was I thought it might help me to keep control of my emotions a little bit, but they definitely did hide quite a few tears along the way," said Radcliffe, who was the 199th participant across the line.
"Certainly down Birdcage Walk I really felt I was close to losing it, but I managed to hold it together.
"There were so many people out on the route and I just wanted to be able to say 'thank you' to as many as possible, but I didn't have that much breath left."
Radcliffe was presented with the inaugural John Disley Lifetime Achievement award by Prince Harry after the race. No one has come close to the staggering world record of 2hrs 15 mins 25secs she set on the streets of the capital in 2003.
The days of those sort of times are gone now, though.
This time she was racing with the masses, alongside the enthusiastic club runners and the charity competitors in their animal costumes.
But, despite a build-up hampered by an Achilles injury, her mark was still inside the IAAF qualifying standard for the Rio Olympics next year - no mean achievement for what was essentially a 'fun run'.
Brazil is unequivocally not in her plans, but her competitive juices were clearly still flowing.
She set off "way too quick" and admitted: "Every time I tried to slow down the atmosphere and everybody shouting just boosted the pace back up again. It was just so hard to rein it in."
Radcliffe is a three-time winner of the London Marathon and the glory this time went to Ethiopia's Tigist Tufa, who ended four years of Kenyan domination to claim a shock win in 2:23:22.
In the men's race Eliud Kipchoge defeated fellow Kenyans Wilson Kipsang, the defending champion, and Dennis Kimetto, the world record holder, to win in 2:04:42
David Weir missed out on a record seventh wheelchair crown as he had to settle for second.
