Currently recovering from a second stress fracture to his pelvis, Derek Hawkins’ most recent personal experience of the marathon was helplessly watching his younger brother endure sporting tragedy from a distance of more than 10,000 miles away.

Not, you might think, the ideal time to invite the Olympian to evangelise on behalf of his sport and yet the love of it he conveyed was undiminished as he promoted the Stirling Scottish Marathon which takes place today, citing the heroics, genuine and otherwise, which surround it, from ancient times with the legend of Pheidippides running the first one to the modern day.

“It’s just such a great test of endurance and such an iconic event as well,” said Hawkins, who has a list of distance running induced injuries that include a stress fracture to his cuboid, assorted groin and Achilles issues and bouts of plantar fasciitis.

“The amount of people who do it as well and it is hard, but they get such a buzz from it. So many, even though they’re sore they just can’t wait to do it again and it’s one of those events where the masses can also line up against the world’s best. At the London Marathon there were people lining up about 10 seconds behind Mo Farah and Eliud Kipchoge and they were loving it.

“And there’s the history too, with it dating back to ancient Greece with the myth that he [Pheidippides] died from the absolute exertion.”

His reference to a story that has, in spite of its historical inaccuracy, contributed to the creation of the event, has a chilling undertone, however. Only a fortnight ago, alarming scenes were witnessed by millions as the magnificent bid by Hawkins’ brother Callum to claim a Commonwealth Games gold medal ended agonisingly on a bridge a little more than a mile from the finish line on the Gold Coast after he had spread-eagled a quality field.

Their father and coach Robert had travelled out to Australia, but for the rest of the family, gathered together in Derek’s front room, there was nothing to do but watch as pride turned to shock and then fear.

“It was just such a weird night,” said Derek, whose guests that evening included all four of his grand-parents and his mother.

“Obviously my dad was out on the Gold Coast with Callum, but the rest of the family were round watching it and we saw him just before the 35K mark and he was working hard, but he didn’t look any different to what you would be expecting, working a bit harder than he was at 20K, but looking strong, pushing on and then the cameras went away. They came back to him and all of a sudden he started wavering.

“He just couldn’t seem to get back into the middle of the road and we were all just urging him to do that.

Obviously, it wouldn’t have made any difference at the end, but at the time that’s what we were thinking. Everything just went… his central nervous system just seemed to shut down, his co-ordination and balance just went.

“It was pretty distressing, it was how quickly it seemed to happen and he fell into that kerb pretty hard. Then he got back up and he was wavering a little bit, but he seemed to get going, but when he got to the bridge and hit his head it was really quite distressing to watch. At that point you just forget about the race and you just hope he’s all right.

“My mum was especially upset. She saw her boy fall over and whack his head, so it was pretty heart-breaking. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever watched, just because it’s your own family member, the state he was in, that scene on the bridge, it’s just very difficult to forget that and seeing him lying down on the ground. It wasn’t nice.”

It perhaps speaks to the mindset required to endure the suffering involved in this toughest of athletic disciplines, that Hawkins’ tone, and the way that gathering responded, is very much matter-of-fact, which extended to the way in which he acknowledged there was cause for concern in the sluggishness of the event organisers’ response to the situation.

Just as Callum has already done in stating that he intends to compete in another marathon next year, though, Derek is focused on the future, eyeing a return for the cross country season in the autumn, but conscious that, as he moves into his 30th year today, competitive life is getting no easier.

“At the moment I’m running for about 20 minutes. I’ve got about 25 minutes to run on Sunday, so it’s quite a way yet,” he admitted. “It’s going to be very tough for myself at the moment. I’m 29 on Sunday and when your little brother’s running a 60-minute flat half marathon and only five or six non-Africans have gone quicker than that, I’ve got my work cut out.

“Even just in British Athletics it’s so hard trying to make a comeback. The quality’s improving all the time, so the gap I’m trying to close is actually getting bigger. It’s going to be tough, but hopefully I can do it.”

He is a Hawkins, so if he fails it will not be down to any lack of effort.