FREYA ROSS makes her long-awaited return to the roads tomorrow.

Britain's leading finisher in the 2012 Olympic women's marathon has suffered a fraught time since replacing world record-holder Paula Radcliffe at six days' notice, and has seen Susan Partridge pre-selected for Glasgow 2014.

Ross is still waiting, though her debut, 2hr 28min 10sec in the Olympic trial, ranks second to Liz McColgan on the Scottish all-time list. Since 2012, however, her career has stalled after successive setbacks. The Bupa Great Edinburgh Run, over 10 miles, will be Ross's first road race in five months and only her second competitive run this year, since fifth in the Scottish cross-country championships - a title she had won in her previous four outings.

Dispiriting? "Not overly. I was beaten by good runners," says Ross. "If I'd been fifth in a not-great field I'd have been more disappointed."

Nor will there be any easing back into action tomorrow. Partridge will be on the start line as will Alyson Dixon, England's leading 2014 marathon contender, formerly coached by McColgan.

Will Ross run tactically, or try to beat them? "I am going to race them," she says. "I'm going to give it my best shot. We'll all be racing to win."

Also there, though past contending at the sharp end, will be Irish icon Sonia O'Sullivan. Now 44, the former world and European track champion is returning to the city where, 20 years ago, she set a world 2000 metres record which still stands.

Ross and Partridge share the same coach, Steve Jones, whose UK marathon record survived the attentions of Mo Farah earlier this month. Ross has just returned from five weeks at altitude with Jones in Boulder, Colorado.

A stress reaction - short of a fracture - kept her out of last year's London marathon. When she recovered, last November she posted Scotland's 2014 qualifying time in Japan, but was more than seven minutes outside her Olympic trial time in London.

"I felt a bit more pressure on the run-in [to Yokohama]. I just wanted to do the best I could, to confirm selection. You never want to count your chickens, but there's no point getting your knickers in a twist and stressing yourself out. It's not in my hands and I feel I've done what I need."

She is second fastest, with the performance deadline now past. It should be a formality, and she is entitled to feel optimistic, given that her leading Olympic UK place was after a "far-from ideal build-up".

Partridge, however is already named for 2014, after an outstanding 10th in last year's World Championship marathon in Moscow. Ross, battling back from another blow, must wait.

Just before Christmas - now dropped from Lottery funding and having moved to a new home in Stenhousemuir - Ross was diagnosed with another stress reaction, this time in a foot. "It was completely healed by the time I ran the Scottish cross-country," she says, but cross-training, rather than the hard miles was the basis for her conditioning.

"Since then I have been able to get the mileage back up again, and training has been going really well. I hope to show form with a decent race on Sunday."

Officially, Commonwealth marathon contenders have to show form, but only the half marathon and 10k are mentioned in selection guidelines. Without doubt, however, selectors will be watching closely in Edinburgh.

On a hilly course, fast times will be problematic. The best guide may be head-to-head evidence. Partridge's 10-mile best (57:14) dates back seven years. She is a much better athlete now. Ross ran 52:27 in the Great South Run at Portsmouth in 2010 - a much flatter course than tomorrow's - while Dixon has 57:10 to her credit, at Thirsk, in 2013. But Dixon, 35, finished 19th in the world half marathon last month. Her stunning personal best of 70:38, suggests Dixon will be hard to beat tomorrow.

"Training has been going really well," said Ross yesterday, "and I was able to increase the mileage and do some good sessions over in Boulder. I feel pretty confident going into a race again."

She will discuss tactics with Jones today, but this highlights the fact he also coaches her biggest domestic rival. "It's not really been an issue yet, and hopefully won't become one. But it's going to be difficult at the Commonwealth Games - a major race for both of us, obviously, with Steve advising both of us.

"Susan and I have been out to Boulder at the same time, on the lead-up to London last year. And we'll both be there on the lead-up to Glasgow. We're both going in June. I will be there for five weeks before the Games and Susan for about four. I'll be back home just over two weeks before the Games, so I will be replicating what I did before the Olympic trial."

One wonders how their coach will advise them for 2014. "Susan and I get on well. When we're not racing each other, we wish one another well. But everyone wants to win. It will be a good race on Sunday."

But come the Games? Might they run together?

"We haven't discussed it yet. It's down to Steve. Running alongside can be helpful, but so far we have never planned that. We ran the Great Scottish Run [last year] and were together for the first few miles before Susan pulled away. We have never talked tactics like that, but possibly in Glasgow. If that is going to happen, and we are going to talk about it, then it will probably be in Boulder when we are training before the Games."

Ross is doing some motivational work for the Winning Scotland Foundation (Champions in Schools) and for the Winners in Life programme. It's a Scottish Government and scottishathletics legacy initiative which has already reached some 3000 pupils in more than 50 schools.

"I am lucky to have some sponsorship from adidas, but basically I am a fulltime athlete. Michael [her husband] has a good job as an electrical engineer, and our outgoings aren't ridiculous. I'll stick with it as long as we can afford it. So the plan at the moment is to go on to Rio, as long as everything goes well, and I continue to enjoy it."

O'Sullivan briefly held the word 10-mile best (51.00) in her pomp, while in the TSB Games at Meadowbank, in July 1994, she set a world record for 2000m (5:25.36). Second was Yvonne Murray, in a Scottish best (5:26.93) - still the two fastest times ever. O'Sullivan's 12-year-old daughter, Sophie, who won the junior mile at the Spar Great Ireland Run in Dublin, is going for a double in Edinburgh's junior race.