Callum Hawkins on his long-awaited return to marathon racing

19/04/2024 15:53

The Scottish marathon record-holder will return to the streets of London this Sunday

Hawkins first appeared on the world marathon stage during his Olympic debut at Rio 2016, finishing ninth in what was only his third marathon (2:11:52). The 31-year-old went on to produce a personal best (2:10:17) during his World Championships debut at London 2017.

Since then he's seen a few challenging races come his way, a standout being the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games which saw the Scot collapse with heat stroke and dehydration whilst in the lead.

Back on his feet in 2019, he went on to break the Scottish marathon record at the London Marathon with a time of 2:08:14, finishing in tenth place. He then finished fourth at the World Championships in Doha over 26.2 miles.

However, once the pandemic hit a year later, the Kilbarchan athlete began to get hit with injury after injury, forcing him to take a step back.

Hawkins failed to finish the Olympic marathon in Tokyo due to an injury to his ankle and in early 2022 he underwent surgery to fix the loose bone fragment. However, the set backs continued as he had to deal with stress reactions towards the end of the year.

“Ever since 2020 I've been injury ridden,” explains Hawkins. “After the Olympics I ended up having to get surgery on a bone fragment on my ankle/foot.

“From there, every year, just as I was getting ready for a marathon, I kept getting stress reactions.”

After a battling few years away from marathon running, Hawkins is now returning to his favourite distance as he prepares to race in the London Marathon this weekend (April 21).

Hawkins will be joined by fellow Brit Emile Cairess who has been already selected for Team GB after his 2:08:04 in Seville a couple of months ago. Marc Scott will also join the pair as he makes his marathon debut.

Despite suffering with a collarbone break at the beginning of the year, Hawkins is still determined to make it to the start line this weekend.

“For this [London Marathon] build up I had a stress reaction back in November,” he adds. “Then I broke my collarbone back in January so it's been pretty tight getting ready for this but it's getting to the point where I just need to get on the start line and race.”

“I need to kind of take the hit from the fitness point of view and then move on and hopefully do something in the Autumn.

“Despite the preparation, I’m actually quite excited to get out and race a marathon as it's my best event. It's the one I love the most and it will be good to just go out and compete.

“I've raced London three times, twice at the London Marathon and once at the World Championships [2017]. Every time I've come down, it's one of the best crowd experiences I can imagine.

“The last time I did it, there were some parts that were so loud it hurt my head so I'm really excited to get to experience that again.”

Hawkins, coached by dad Robert Hawkins, hasn’t been following a ‘traditional’ marathon training plan due to the set backs he has faced.

His main goal for this weekend is focusing on finishing his first injury-free marathon in a long time, as he looks towards completing another one in October.

“I’ve not been following a traditional training plan, we’ve moved from a seven day cycle to a 10 day cycle which has given me a bit more flexibility,” says Hawkins.

“That was due to the injuries so I’ve just been trying to do the big sessions and not push the mileage too much so I can actually not get hurt.

“Hopefully after London I recover and take a week or two off and then I can build that base back up and go for something in October. I’ve not quite decided what marathon yet but that’s the aim to try and get back to at least where I was, maybe about 2:08:00 [Olympic qualification standard] but we will see how things go.”

In the challenging process of taking time to recover from his injuries, Hawkins has focused on a very relaxed approach.

“I put it in the back of my head and move on and aim for the next goal, having a goal really helps me move on from things like that,” the Brit adds.

“You’ve got to believe in what you’ve got. Pick a goal that is doable and focus on that because that is what really helped me move one.”

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