Of the 35,000 runners who will line up at the start of the London Marathon on Sunday, it's fairly safe to predict that a good number of them won't make it to the finish.

One runner whom you would expect to complete the 26.2 miles, however, is Mo Farah.

Yet, if you want to catch a glimpse of the double Olympic gold medallist, then don't hang around at the 26-mile mark because Farah has announced that he will be dropping out of the race at the halfway point. While runners in oversized chicken costumes struggle on to the finish, Farah will be relaxing in the hospitality tent.

As with many distance runners, Farah's long-term plan is to work his way up the distances as he grows older, with 2014 likely to be the year he does his first full marathon. Instead of sticking to designated half-marathons this year – he has already contested the New Orleans half-marathon in February – he will run the first half of the race in London and then throw in the towel. I don't know who is advising him, but using one of the world's most iconic endurance tests as a training aid doesn't seem to be the smartest choice.

Farah's logic is that taking part in the London Marathon, even partially, will allow him to encounter every situation with which he will be required to contend when he does have his first tilt at the full distance. This experience will, in turn, leave him better prepared to cope with the full race next year.

In theory, the strategy is sound. Many athletes use competitive events to help them prepare for their bigger goal because it is impossible to replicate exactly a competition environment in training. But for Farah to choose the London Marathon in which to do this is bewildering. Instead of looking like an athlete with a long-term plan, he is coming across as someone who is acting extremely disrespectfully towards one of Britain's great sporting events, together with short-changing thousands of fans who willed him to gold last summer. Farah has countered this criticism by saying that his appearance will give those fans who were unable to watch him run at the Olympics last summer a fresh opportunity to see him.

These fans are turning up to witness him race and by quitting at halfway he is not really racing, is he? The fact that he is to receive a fee of £250,000 for completing only 13 and-a-bit miles is unlikely to garner much support either.

Paula Radcliffe called Farah's plan "a little strange", suggesting that "he should have found a good half-marathon somewhere and then do the London Marathon when he's ready to attack it hard". Steve Cram said the double Olympic gold medallist's decision was "difficult to comprehend" and track legend Michael Johnson has suggested that Farah is at risk of ruining his reputation and alienating himself from his legions of fans.

Farah has certainly built up considerable goodwill from the public in the aftermath of the 2012 Olympics. Born in Somalia before moving to the UK as an immigrant at the age of eight, that he went on to win two gold medals for his adopted country – the "Mobot" became one of the lasting images of the 2012 Games – is the sort of life-affirming story that captures the British public's hearts.

Farah has built this stellar reputation on his endurance capabilities and his will to win; on occasion during his races at the Olympics he appeared beaten before he eventually prevailed. Will this hard-earned reputation withstand his act of quitting at the halfway point on Sunday?

Farah has a humility and a manner which may just allow him to get away with the strange plan he and his coach have concocted. If he returns to the capital in 12 months' time and crosses the finish line first, all will be forgotten. He will be applauded for managing the tricky transition from track to road perfectly. But he may, for the first time, experience some murmurings of discontent from his adoring public this Sunday.