Pavey hopes to make the transition to marathon running

The 32-year-old Commonwealth 5,000m silver medallist, who intends to step up to marathon running, was only two seconds behind Ethiopian Berhane Adere.

Former world 10,000m champion Adere won in 15 minutes 24 seconds.

Paula Radcliffe, expecting her first child in January, started the race and then ran alongside 20,000 fun-runners.

Radcliffe finished in 23rd place, unsurprisingly four minutes outside her course record time.

"It was hard to hold myself back and I deliberately didn't fetch my racing shoes," she said. "I had to make sure my heart rate didn't go over a certain level."

Pavey, outsprinted by Adere in the Park, held off the challenge of Kenya's Rita Jeptoo, who was third in 15:27.

Exeter Harrier Pavey was pleased with her performance in adverse conditions and said: "It's so difficult not to have lap times and there were so many twists and turns on the course, I wasn't sure what to do and it was so windy I felt I was wasting energy.

"But it was a great opportunity to practise road running."

Pavey will step up to half-marathon in the Great North Run, which takes place on 1 October.