[Magdalen] Said the magic word

[M J _Mike_ Logsdon]

>>>"Thanks, but I cannot run."<<<

You might adopt the Coolidge-ian "I do not choose to run", not for what for him amounted to ambiguity, but for what for you could be a more forthright "choice" rather than a "cannot".  ("Why can't he?")  One says there's an obstacle to running (there is, but that's no one's business but yours), but the other draws a more deliberate "this is my life, dammit" line in the ecclesiastical sand.