Luke Caldwell will finally get the clash with Mo Farah he has always craved when the pair line up tomorrow morning at the outset of the Bupa Great North Run.
"I hope he doesn't chicken out like last time," the 23-year-old Scot chuckles.
While the Olympic champion was sitting out the Commonwealth Games to focus on what would be a twin triumph at the European Championships, the young aspirant was merrily inheriting the home support of the absentee at Hampden in his own double assault over 5000 and 10,000 metres.
Despite an audacious bid in the shorter event, he did not trouble the podium but it was not an endeavour wasted. Freshly returned from a two-year sojourn in the mountains of New Mexico, and with a Masters in physics added to the Bachelors degree he secured at Oxford, Caldwell is to scale back his interest in the field of superconductors in favour of producing performances of the superhuman variety.
"For the next two years at least my priority will be running," he says. "If I can, I want to keep getting physics experience because I can only run so long at a high level. I'm now looking at how best to throw myself into athletics and seeing how I can support it. Until last year, I'd never really thought about being a professional athlete or having that as the main focus of my life. But the progress I've made has made me think about it. It's got to the point where if I don't give it a go, I'll regret it."
The American adventure paid dividends, he acknowledges. The NCAA circuit, with its constant stream of collegiate events each weekend, gave him a grounding in the art of competitive cunning that he badly craved. It afforded a certain leeway to conduct experiments in his personal laboratory, clinical trials with himself as the study to balance racing and recovery as well as theory and practice.
Earning his first international vest with an unexpected Great Britain call-up for this summer's European Team Championships arguably proved the tipping point for his ambitions. Yet it was the Commonwealths that provided the spur for action. "It would be amazing to be at an event of that stature and in that atmosphere and be competing for a medal and not just be in the middle of the pack," he confirms. "I want to get to that level."
Thirteen miles and a bit between Gateshead and Newcastle-upon-Tyne will give him further steers in what will be his debut at the distance. Farah, second to Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele last year, is merely the headline act in a quality field that also includes Olympic marathon gold medallist Stephen Kiprotich and Britain's coming man Andy Vernon.
Going to Tyneside was an easy decision. "After the Commonwealths, I was in two minds over how I ran," Caldwell declares. "But I was in great shape and I didn't want to just call an end to the season. So we decided to try something different which ended up being the Great North Run. It's a great event but it's my first half marathon so I'm not putting any pressure on myself."
It will be a study visit of sorts. Without textbooks on hand, the thirst for knowledge must still be quenched. "I've never raced Mo so it will be great experience to be alongside him, as well as the other great people who are doing it. I'm sure every time you're in that kind of company, you pick something up from them."
Established by Brendan Foster in 1991, the Great North event has flourished to the extent that someone, towards the latter half of this year's entrants, will be feted as its one millionth finisher.
The women's elite event will include Susan Partridge, with the Oban-born challenger returning to action for the first time since finishing sixth at the Commonwealth marathon in Glasgow, with Ethiopia's Olympic champions Tirunesh Dibaba and Tiki Gelana among her main foes.
Caldwell will hope to tuck into the pack somewhere and deliver the kind of time that leaves him energised for the possibilities lying ahead. Foster's brainchild, over its history, has been a platform for many British track performers to announce themselves as potential road warriors.
"It's one of those races where, growing up in the UK and being into athletics, I always remember it being on TV, a bit like the London Marathon," Caldwell recounts. "Or you know someone, a mate's dad or something, who was training for it. Last year was sensational, with Mo going up against Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie. There is something special about it."
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