IT wasn’t just Callum Hawkins who April’s gruelling Gold Coast marathon took its toll on. Even Mike Shelley, the native Queenslander who ignored the sight of the prone Scot lying at the side of the road some two kilometres from the finish to take gold, admits he wasn’t quite the same man afterwards either.

In sun-kissed Scotland yesterday ahead of his participation in tomorrow’s Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run - even if temperatures are thankfully more Glasgow Green than Gold Coast - Shelley cast his mind back to the online abuse he fielded in the aftermath of the affair, and the Australian TV sports commentators who pontificated that he should have simply stopped running there and then to tend to the stricken Hawkins. Say what you like about the medical treatment the Scot received, or the fact the race was scheduled for the midday Queensland sun, but none of it was exactly the fault of the 34-year-old Australian, who was mentally and physically exhausted afterwards.

“At the end of the day people have their opinions and I understand them,” said Shelley, who was fully two minutes back at the time when Hawkins, literally, hit the wall on an exposed stretch of the Gold Coast Highway called Sundale Bridge. “But it DID affect me early on. I maybe took it all a little bit personally. Thankfully I had my family and friends around me. They helped get me through it.

“When I got onto the bridge that was when I first saw something was going on. I sort of had a quick look and saw that he had someone [a medic] with him. Then I just tried to focus on the race because I was starting to drift mentally as well.”

With Hawkins carted off to Gold Coast University hospital that very night, Shelley had hoped to meet up with his running rival – nine years his junior - this weekend in his native city no less. Instead the 2016 winner of this race chose to race over ten miles in Holland last weekend, a fine run of 47.01 secs which augured well for the Kilbarchan runner’s return to form after the trauma of the Commonwealth Games.

“It was only after the event, when I saw what had actually happened, that I was a little bit shocked so I sent him [Hawkins] a message just to see that night to see how he was and say that I hoped he was doing better, that sort of thing,” said Shelley.

“But I know I couldn’t have done anything at that moment,” he added. “And that is what Callum told me in his message of response. I was hoping I would have caught up with him this weekend, unfortunately that isn’t going to be possible.

“But everybody has different race schedules and is doing different things and it is great to see Callum back running again and hopefully we will catch up at another race soon. From seeing some results recently, he has been coming back a lot stronger so that is good to see for the sport.

“Callum has got a lot of great races ahead of him and I am looking forward to seeing how he will progress,” said Shelley. “I know he has some great times around the corner. I don’t know what his exact plans are, but his next cold one is going to be pretty special I think.”

Shelley lives near the Queensland theme parks of Movieworld and Dreamworld and that marathon on the final day of the Gold Coast schedule was certainly a rollercoaster. He refuses to criticise the decision to run the race at a time when the midday sun might come into play, but admits his longest training runs usually commence at around 5am.

“Even as a local Gold Coaster, it was a hot day for me,” he says. “I do train in that - that is how I get the singlet tan going on - although there were a couple of days in February where I had to cut my sessions down because it was just too hot. It was actually cooling down from our summer and the days leading up to it weren’t too bad but it was definitely an out of the blue hot day. As athletes we didn’t have a say in the scheduling.

“I wasn’t feeling too fresh myself afterwards either. I had to do the drug testing and all that but I was a bit sick about 30 minutes afterwards when I was trying to get water down me. I think I was just trying to drink too much water and my body didn’t accept it.”

Compared to the attrition of April, tomorrow’s quick burl around Glasgow seems almost like a walk in the park. Shelley, who has fond memories of this city, from taking 2014 Commonwealth gold here, will vie with last year’s winner Chris Thompson, with Luke Traynor and Tsegai Tewelde fronting up the home challenge.

“It is good to be back in Glasgow, I have such fond memories of winning the Commonwealth Games marathon here four years ago,” said Shelley. “It turned a little bit drizzly that day but overall it wasn’t that bad. The conditions will possibly be advantageous to run a bit faster over a longer distance [than the Gold Coast] but a lot of those major competitions take place in the summer. So you just to the best you can. I am looking forward to some nice cold conditions, and it is half the distance too so that is good.”