IT is 23 years today since Edinburgh's Allister Hutton won the London Marathon, and 17 yesterday since Liz McColgan's win, but 2013 marked the biggest Scottish impact on the race since then.
There were a record three Scottish successes in the Virgin London Marathon – Derek Hawkins, from Kilbarchan, was first British male to finish; Susan Partridge was the leading UK female. Both can expect to be named for the World Championships in Moscow this year, while the leading woman in the mass-participation event was Hawkins' Renfrewshire clubmate Hayley Haining, at the age of 41.
Mother of a two-year-old son, her as-yet unratified time of 2:36.52 is more then three minutes inside the Scottish qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games, yet after pregnancy and absence from the sport, she is not in the 51-strong 2014 squad.
The other two also were inside the 2014 entry standard.
To cap an outstanding day for the Scottish trio, they found themselves in the money, too. Hawkins and Haining collected $1500 each in bonuses for their times, while Partridge pocketed $11,000 for her troubles: $3000 for finishing in 9th place and $8000 for completing the course in under 2hr 31min.
Thirteenth in 2:16.50 (second European) yesterday, Hawkins already had the Moscow standard from Frankfurt (2:14.08) last year, but Partridge made the required time with just 14 seconds to spare as she finished in 2:30.46, the best time of her life. Both confirmed that if selected they will run in the World Championships.
Hawkins, a former Scottish cross-country champion, from a family of champions, won the mini-marathon here in 2004, and was delighted to graduate to the big stage, yet he finished only his second marathon punching the air in frustration. "I wasn't comfortable from the start," he said, "though I settled into it eventually. But I ran most of it on my own, from six miles. Training had gone well. Maybe it was just a bad day. I felt flat."
His bother, Callum, who had two knee operations last year, is a former national champion and helped Britain to European team cross-country gold in 2009. Another brother, Scott, was also national champion, while father, Robert, won the Scottish senior boys' title 34 years ago.
Just 23, Derek won Scottish cross-country titles in 2009, '11 and '12. He also showed great track promise. "I tried it for a couple of years, but it didn't work out. I hoped to get under 29min for 10k at the Olympic trials, but got food poisoning. I bombed out there, completely disillusioned. I'll try track again, but for now it's the marathon for 2014, if selected. I'd like to do the marathon in Rio, but with Mo Farah and Chris Thompson, and other good guys, that will be tough."
One of those, Scott Overall, who ran the Olympic marathon last year, dropped out yesterday at 25k.
Hawkins says he has had "a hell of a lot of support from my family" in his training, which peaked at 119 miles in a week, and topped 100 miles for 11 weeks.
For the Scottish trio, this is not the drama of full-time elite running. All hold down jobs as they pursue their dreams. Hawkins will be back stacking shelves tomorrow in his part-time job in Morrisons' supermarket; Partridge will be back at her research job on artificial joints at Leeds University, while Dr Haining, a specialist in clinical veterinary medicine, will be looking down a microscope at the University of Glasgow.
Partridge was far out of her comfort zone, just 20 seconds behind the leaders with 34.31 at 10k. "I was praying that I was not going to overcook it," she said after slicing almost three and a half minutes from her best. Her father and her partner were dotting around the route on the Tube, biting their nails.
"I thought I might have blown it, but I feel really good and am really pleased," said the former Glasgow student whose family live in Appin. "It has taught me to be a bit more aggressive, and forget about the time, race it and go with them. It felt pretty good overtaking the Olympic champion. I'd like to be in the shape of my life for Glasgow 2014, and hope I might make the podium. I'll be 34, and I'm not thinking about retirement, but you never know how long you have at the marathon."
Haining showed how remarkable that can be. She won her first Scottish tiles at 800m on the track in 1985. Haining found "a really great group to run with. I could not be more pleased. My clubmate, Gemma Rankine, also had a great run."
A former Commonwealth Games athlete, World Cup team bronze medallist with Radcliffe and Olympic understudy to her in 2008, Haining was inspired to try for the 2014 team when she realised her son would be four then, and able to remember the occassion. That dream is now on course
When reunited with Elliott yesterday, he said: "Well done Mum. Big, big run all done!"
There was further cause for celebration after Meggan Dawson Farrell set a new Scottish wheelchair record with 2.18.23 to claim 10th place in the women's race.
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