I left home at 3am and reached Andorra at 3am the next morning. Twenty-four hours of travel for a trip by car would have taken half the time. This is day 2084 of my daily run streak, and today I want to write about journeys from hell and how I handled mine.

What happened

We were flying from Luton to Barcelona on a 6.50am flight, so we had to leave the house around 3am. Everything went smoothly until we boarded. Barcelona had high wind gusts. The forecast said 21 degrees and sunny, so the weather caught everyone off guard. Strong gusts are dangerous for a plane coming in to land.

We sat on the plane for an hour and a half, then left the aircraft while the crew changed over. We spent a couple more hours in the terminal before the airline decided to fly us to Barcelona anyway.

The plane tried to land twice. On both attempts, the pilot came down to within a few hundred feet of the runway, then pulled up hard and climbed away to circle round. The turbulence was rough. Many passengers were sick into bags. After the second attempt, the airline diverted us to Valencia.

Valencia looks close to Barcelona on a map. By road, the journey takes four and a half hours. Coaches left two hours after we landed, so we spent the wait in the airport and then rode the full distance. In Barcelona, we caught the 11pm coach to Andorra, which took three and a half hours. We arrived at 3am.

What I noticed about people

The delay itself was out of everyone's hands. The weather made the decision, the airline followed safety rules, and no passenger could change either. What interested me was the range of reactions.

Some people became angry and argued with each other and with staff. Others settled in and got on with the day. Both groups ended up in the same place at the same time. The anger changed nothing about the arrival time. Staff had no say over the wind, and the people shouting at them did not speed anything up. The only thing anger changed was how those people felt for 24 hours.

I am not saying I felt calm every minute. I was tired, and the long wait at the airport was not pleasant. What I did was ask a simple question: can I change this? When the answer was no, I stopped spending energy on the problem and put my attention on the next step. Next step one was the coach. Next step two was the Barcelona connection. Next step three was getting to a bed.

The lesson for me

Perspective matters because stress is a cost. Each hour spent angry at a delay is an hour you pay for twice, once in the delay and once in your own mood. Where there is something to act on, I act. Where there is nothing, I accept the situation and move on.

Daily running trains the same habit. A run does not wait for good weather, good sleep or a clear diary. Some days the conditions are poor and the run happens anyway, at the pace the day allows. I have found that consistency is mostly about accepting conditions you did not choose and still doing the work in front of you.

Travel adds a different test. A streak built over 2084 days does not survive on ideal days. A travel day like this one shows what the practice is for. Rain, cold, early starts, long journeys and late arrivals all come with the plan. The streak is designed to last 16.5 years, so I need a way of handling bad days that I could repeat for that long. Fighting the situation is not repeatable. Acceptance is.

Where this sits in the mission

I am running a lap of the world, 40,075km, in barefoot-style footwear, one day at a time. After 2084 consecutive days I have covered 16,066.40km, which leaves 24,008.60km to go. The goal behind the distance is to raise £1M for children's causes, including Great Ormond Street and BBC Children in Need. The more people who see this journey, the more support the causes receive.

None of the children those charities support get to choose their circumstances. A delayed flight sits at the very small end of what outside forces do to a person. I held this in mind while sitting in Valencia airport. My discomfort lasted 24 hours and ended with a bed. Families dealing with a sick child often have no end date. This comparison helped me keep my own frustration in proportion.

Ways to handle your own journey from hell

These are the habits I used, and I intend to keep them:

Ask whether the situation is in your control. If not, stop arguing with it. Break the problem into the next single step rather than the whole delay. Look after the basics: water, food, charging your phone and keeping warm. Be kind to the staff. They are dealing with the same weather as you. Allow extra time for any connection after an early flight.

What I would do differently

Next time I would book a later flight and a buffer night on the far side if the schedule allows. Early flights leave no room for error, and a single delay then cascades through every connection. Accepting a bad day is one skill. Planning to reduce the chance of one is another.

If you have ever lost a day to delays, tell me how you handled the frustration. I would like to hear which habits worked for you.

If you believe in the mission to save the lives of children through the ultimate ultra-marathon of run vlogging, please watch, subscribe, share and comment. Every person who sees this journey helps the fundraising reach further. I will be back tomorrow with day 2085.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/ZQh2NaMr6og