There has long been a creed that those wishing to do a marathon must first serve their time running laps and fortifying legs before pushing body and mind to the outer limits.
"It's seen as the British way," Derek Hawkins acknowledges. It is an approach long since written into irrelevance. The Scot was just 23 when he took a 26-mile tour along the streets of Frankfurt. It did him no harm. If you're good enough, you're old enough, one might say. Some, especially those ill-suited to the track, are better off heading straight to Plan C.
Like so many younger siblings, Callum Hawkins senses a temptation to follow in a path already trodden in-house. The 20-year-old Great Britain internationalist has watched Derek, his elder by four years, reap the rewards for his audacity and may make the same leap. Both flourish on cross-country. The roads are where they feel most at home. The track, for neither, has been sympathetic. Before long, we might see both, lined up together, on a long-distance duel.
"He did a really good half marathon but I've told him if he wants to move up, then he has to be 100% committed," Derek said. "If there's any doubt, you should back out. It's not easy. I've left the decision up to him. But if part of him still wants to do the track, he should stick to that until he's absolutely ready to go for the full marathon. It's a big step."
Youth is a barrier best discounted, he underlines. "The Kenyans tend to do it younger and they seem to do ok. Dathan Ritzenheim qualified for the Olympic marathon and then still ducked under 13 minutes for the 5000m. So people like him show it is possible to do the marathon without blowing your track times. If Callum did give it a shot, I still think he can go back down and do well on the track."
Rarely head to head competitors on any terrain, we might see more regular tete-a-tetes in the works. And also collaborations. The pair are set to form a two-man squad at the Morrisons Great Edinburgh Run on April 19 as part of a new relay adjunct to the main 10-mile centre piece. Derek, who is likely to target an autumn marathon to secure his passage to Rio 2016, may opt to pull rank.
"We'd have a bit of debate about who gets the first leg," he said. "From what I've heard, the toughest bit comes up first so we might have to fight over it. But it would be good to race with him, rather than against him. We've not actually done that many relays together so it would be interesting to do."
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