To defer or not to defer, that is the question

Well, I'm feeling a lot better in myself but have developed an annoying cough. I can't decide whether it's on my chest or not, which is a key question - if it's gone to my chest, I probably shouldn't run.

I'm in a complete dilemma about deferring my entry. I know that my ultimate goal is the marathon in November, but I had entered the Great North Run way back in January, before my marathon place was a reality, and it seems such a shame that I'm not going to be able to give it my best shot. This time last week I was feeling confident of a PB in the race, I was feeling fast and fit. Now I sound like an old lady smoking 400 a day!

A little tester run today showed my heart rate was normal, so I'm obviously not suffering too much. I'm certainly not coughing when I'm running. But I've missed 3 runs now and a lot of miles of preparation, so I'm not likely to do nearly as well as I'd hoped.

And this might be my only chance to run the Great North Run - I was so lucky to get a ballot place and I can't help thinking I should defer to next year and give myself a real chance to run a fast race in the biggest half marathon. I can still put in a long run on Sunday, as a training run, but not in the race. I've always wanted to run this race, even before I got into running I'd always said I would like to run it one day. Now I've got this fantastic opportunity and those  pesky germs have ruined it.

I'm going to give it until the end of the week to decide - I've got two more opportunities to have a training run this week, and see how I feel after those. If it's not good, I can always defer by phone on Friday.

And if it's good, well, South Shields here I come...