So, the London Marathon is postponed. As are lots of other races, and I’m sure I’m feeling similar emotions to many folks who were looking forward to racing.

To be honest, today I’m actually feeling some sense of relief. I’ve been waking up at 2am and checking the feeds to see if other races were being cancelled. And each time another major city announced, it made me feel more and more certain this news was coming.

So I’m feeling stoic. The greater certainty is better than not knowing whether to push on with the training and fundraising or not.

There are more important and, frankly frightening, things going on in the world right now. It’s a luxurious position to be in to even be able to have the time in our weekly schedules to be able to take on these running challenges. And right now, the risks involved in these events just don’t weigh up against the benefits.

I’ve been weighing up whether to keep training and do a “virtual” run like Jon B is going to do, or whether to pause and aim for October instead.

I’ve decided on the latter. I started running in August/September last year, and it’s been quite a shift to where I am now. I feel fitter and stronger than I think I ever have. So by October I’ll be even stronger and feel even more ready for the marathon. I know that I could do it now, because of how I felt after my recent 30km run.

But why am I running? Would continuing and running the distance anyway be a good ending to this challenge? I don’t think so - it feels like a bit of an anticlimax, especially because I’ve been raising funds for charity around my “couch to marathon” story and how it relates to our neurodiverse family.

My wife Emily said something a few weeks ago that stuck with me and has helped me to have a stoic attitude to all of this.

“The goal isn’t to run the marathon, it’s to become the kind of person who runs marathons”.

I’ve found that really helpful, so I’m going to continue running long, but shorter-than-marathon distances through the summer and then aim for London in October.

This evening, to mark the end of my marathon training programme (thank you Run With Hal) I went out to set a benchmark.

10k, round the park, as fast as I could manage. That’s 3 minutes off my personal best!

A good way to start the next phase.

Thanks for following along everyone and I hope you’re adapting too!