Pulling out of race due to injury

I’m meant to be running Sydney Marathon in less than two weeks as my first marathon and am really struggling with the fact that it’s looking increasingly likely I won’t be on the start line.

I haven’t ran since a failed 28km long run on 5th July, which turned out to be a Grade 2 tibial bone stress injury. My longest run before that was 26km two weeks before. I spent 4 weeks full time in a walking boot and have only started transitioning out of it over the last week or two.

My physio has said that if I really want to do the marathon I can attempt it, but I’d need to run/walk from the very start and stop if I have any pain. I’m still getting some shin pain when hopping on the injured leg though and she’s now leaning more towards me not doing it.

I’m just finding the whole thing really hard to accept. I started prepping for this run in January and feel I’ve trained for this for months and for no reason as now I’m likely going to have to miss it without even getting to try. It feels like I have failed and like my body has let me down. Seeing everyone doing their final long runs and getting excited for race day while I haven’t run in over 6 weeks has been crap.

The worst part is that even if I do attempt it, it won’t be anywhere near to the marathon I’d been working towards. I wanted to actually feel prepared for my first marathon and see what I could do on the day. Instead I’d basically be going from my first return to run/walk straight into 42km, and I feel a bit like well anyone can walk a marathon so why bother when it runs the risk of injury.

Family and friends have said I can surely do it (most are not runners) but tbh I’m leaning towards not doing it, but I keep going back and forth. I really wish I could just defer to 2027. Sydney is my home marathon, the start line is literally minutes from my house and obviously now that it’s a Major there’s no guarantee I’ll get another place. Thinking about my name being on the wall at the expo and there being a bib there for me that I might never collect honestly makes me so sad after everything that went into getting there.

I suppose I’m looking for advice on what other people would do in my situation, but also just to hear from anyone who has had to pull out of a marathon this close because of injury. How did you deal with the emotional side of feeling like all that training was for nothing? And if anyone has been in a similar situation and decided to attempt it anyway, how did it go?

Thanks in advance.