Another uplifting story Dad’s marathon dreams for son will have to wait

Bill Johncock and his disabled son Logan have gotten pretty accustomed to rolling with the punches over the past year, as Dad has pushed them — quite literally — toward a big running goal: the 2020 Boston Marathon.

Most recently, a borrowed racing chair turned out to have a steering problem that wore out Bill’s arms more than his legs at the Atlanta Half Marathon a few weekends ago.

Now, with the coronavirus pandemic spreading, and the current trend of canceling large public events continuing, the Boston Marathon — originally set for April 20 — was postponed on Friday morning until Sept. 14.

Johncock is trying to take it all in stride.

“It’s just like the chair, or like the weather. It’s something that is beyond our control,” says the 55-year-old podiatrist from Hickory, North Carolina. “We’re going to control what we can control. The rest, we’ve got to put it in God’s hands. ... We’ll go to Plan B.”

But at the same time, you can tell how big a blow it is to him. After all, getting to the Boston Marathon with Logan — who has a rare genetic disorder called Angelman syndrome, which makes walking difficult and talking impossible — has been a dream of Bill Johncock’s for the past 15 years.

“A life is more important. As big as this is for us, the health of a lot of other people is more important . ...

“So, yeah, it looks like we’ll have to wait. But ... eventually, we’ll get there.”

Bill Johncock is more than halfway to his goal of raising $10,000 as part of his and Logan’s run-up to the race; $4,000 of that paid for a new racing chair for Logan, and the remainder will go to Ainsley’s Angels (ainsleysangels.org), an organization that promotes active lifestyles among individuals with special needs.