The Road to London: Waiting for coronavirus to strike

But that the announcement comes after I return home from a 22-mile run. Or, even worse, on a rest day.

For the one good thing to come out of the event being cancelled will be the enormous sense of relief I get from not having to go out for a run that day. Or the next day.

At the moment, I’m still putting the miles in. I just can’t afford to slack off, fall of the wagon if you like, because one missed session will lead to another and then another and before you know it I’ll be slumped over in some dingy corner wondering where my next mile is going to come from.

However, once London is off the agenda, so is training.

I’m not sourcing an alternative. I’m not going to run the course as a pointless act of defiance and I’m not going to keep myself ticking over until the autumn when I can run another marathon.

Instead, I’m going to do all the things I’ve been missing out on for the last two months, like spending time with Keri and Iris, eating doughnuts and planning days that don’t revolve around running.

That might change, however, the closer to April 26 we get.

At the moment I have still got another five weeks of hard work to put in before I can even think about tapering.

I’m running well but I’m (hopefully) not at the peak of my powers.

Fast forward to the end of the month when the 24-miler is out of the way and the start line is in sight and I might feel a little differently.

Will I want the training and the hardships to go to waste? Will there be an enormous sense of anti-climax should I knock the schedule on the head? And would I be able to raise the same level of motivation for another winter of training?

For now though, all I can do is stick to the schedule and go out and run the miles.

But if you hear London has been called off before I do, please stop me and hand me a doughnut!

Completed training:

Saturday: Ten miles including 2 @ 6:45

Sunday: Warwick Half Marathon (plus 2 miles warm-up and 15-minute warm-down) in 1:27:03 (72nd)

Tuesday: 10 miles including 6 x 5min @ 6:30

Wednesday: 16 miles @ 7:50

Thursday: 1.5 mile warm-up and 12x400m

Imodium usage (running total): 13