A 12 months on from struggling a seizure on the European Championships, Jess Warner-Judd talks by means of its lasting results – her mind would successfully swap off to guard her when she tried to race on the observe once more – and the way the roads have given her the area to regain her energy and revel in her working once more
Totally 15 months on from a traumatic summer season that ended with a seizure-induced DNF on the European Championships and eventual prognosis of epilepsy, Jess Warner-Judd’s Huge Half victory was precisely the boldness increase she wanted.
“I simply felt actually good,” she says. “For the primary time in a very long time my race truly mirrored how I’d been feeling in coaching and I felt actually sturdy.”
They had been welcome phrases from the previous world age-group 800m medallist who completed eighth within the 10,000m on the 2023 senior World Championships and represented Group GB on the 2021 Olympic Video games in Tokyo.
Her expertise in Rome final 12 months – she barely remembers the ten,000m race aside from a sense of disconnect together with her physique as soon as it started – and within the months that adopted has been properly documented; the emotional rollercoaster of early 2025 that led to altering targets and a pending marathon debut in New York Metropolis, much less so.
Regardless of an extremely difficult 2024, Warner-Judd, who had began the 12 months with a half-marathon private better of 67:06, completed the 12 months with fulfilling outings representing Blackburn Harriers on the highway and cross nation (“…so grateful to be comfortable, wholesome, seizure-free and loving my working once more,” she wrote on Instagram on the time).
Shifting into 2025 her health returned – half marathons in Houston (69:07), Barcelona (69:35) and Berlin (70:24) reassured her that she was making good progress – and so did her ambition. “At first I believed it could take ages [to get my fitness back], however that’s the factor, as quickly as I began getting match I used to be like: ‘Oh, possibly [qualifying for the] World Champs [is possible]’.
Paradoxically, her authentic purpose had been to run a marathon this 12 months. Warner-Judd instructed The Guardian in March that her intention had been to step as much as 26.2 miles in 2025 if she had competed as deliberate on the Paris Olympic Video games. The autumn-out from Rome made that unattainable and unfinished enterprise pressured her hand: “I need to end my observe profession on my phrases, not epilepsy’s,” she stated on the time.
The turning level, which in the end led again to ‘plan A’, got here at a low-key observe assembly in California in early Might.
“The periods I used to be doing round that point had been actually, actually good – higher than I’d completed within the lead as much as Budapest [the 2023 World Championships],” she remembers. “I believed I’d go to America, race the 10km [Save the 10,000m with Des and Kara] then construct from there, do some 5kms and purpose for the British Championships.”
She remembers the beginning line of that 10,000m race, however the remainder of it’s a blur. Along with her husband Rob watching on, she began to hyper-ventilate and panic, ultimately having to lie down on the again straight to get her respiration beneath management. “I utterly disassociated,” she says.
In some ways it was déjà vu – a flashback to that horrible evening in Rome final June. This time, nevertheless, her DNF wasn’t attributable to her epilepsy instantly however not directly by means of a trauma-induced psychological response. Warner-Judd recovered shortly and warmed down as regular.
“I believe the laborious factor in the beginning [going back to 2024] was that there have been so many issues to be labored out,” she says, reflecting on her preliminary prognosis. “We nailed the epilepsy stuff, then we labored on my confidence – that’s why I began seeing a psychologist at first, to handle my confidence and nervousness simply going again to the observe – and we thought we’d nailed that too, till that race within the US after which the FAST5000m in Paris [in June]. It was simply so bizarre.
“After the US everybody thought it was simply because I’d bought actually anxious – lining up for 25 laps made me realise how essential the psychological facet of the game will be – however after Paris they realised there was a pure trauma response. It was like: ‘Ah, that is what’s occurring’, and it took a wee whereas for that to click on.
“I believe once we discovered that out in June [of this year] it was truly fairly a aid as a result of I realised it wasn’t as a result of I used to be coaching badly or working badly, there was truly a purpose for it and when it was defined it made sense; as quickly because the gun went off it was like all the pieces went heavy, I couldn’t run, after which I couldn’t keep in mind something about it.
“In Paris I used to be making an attempt to suppose what I did unsuitable within the race, I used to be trying on the time [15:55.26] and pondering: ‘That’s so sluggish,’ however then I used to be like: ‘What did I do?’, and I had no recollection of it in any respect.
I used to be doing all these actually good periods, and though I completed in Paris I couldn’t keep in mind what occurred. It turned out that I used to be disassociating from it due to the trauma from Rome. It was a very new factor for us to cope with and in a manner I believe it was more durable to cope with than an precise harm.”
Frustratingly, Warner-Judd knew she wasn’t going to have the ability to show her health on the observe. That view was echoed by knowledgeable professionals; in truth, her personal psychologist, in addition to the medical group at UK Athletics, really helpful she transfer away from observe competitors utterly.
“They instructed me I needed to separate [from it],” she explains. “They described it to me…it’s like each time I race I get a stamp, and earlier than I do know it my physique gained’t be capable of take any extra stamps after which I’ll in all probability find yourself eager to retire as a result of I’ll be so upset and so disheartened with all of it.”
A transfer to highway working has eradicated the chance of the trauma response related to observe racing. It additionally presents a chance to run to type, quite than her nice coaching periods failing to translate to races. A much less intense surroundings – extra space, fewer flashing lights, no pyrotechnics – will even contribute to a greater general expertise.
The TCS New York Marathon Metropolis on November 2 – a distance that had been pencilled in for 2025 lengthy earlier than her epilepsy prognosis and related challenges – will present the right stage.
Warner-Judd’s 16-week coaching block started in early July, coinciding with a transfer from Loughborough (the place she graduated with a PhD in Regenerative Drugs in December 2024) to the Lancashire city of Clitheroe and appropriately marking a contemporary begin in each life and working.
She’s raced twice since then – an fulfilling outing over seven miles in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the place she completed tenth in a discipline bursting with expertise in 37:21 – and most not too long ago in London the place she gained the aforementioned Huge Half in 70:35. Collectively, they offered welcome validation of her choice to maneuver again to the roads.
Warner-Judd is having fun with marathon coaching, too – the long term periods, double session days and new autumn goal offering a welcome distraction to the Tokyo observe motion and related ‘What ifs?’.
“I do like it,” says the three-time Mini London Marathon winner who’s coached by her dad. “The coaching is tough so I simply need to take it one week at a time, however there’s one thing about doing the lengthy stuff, it simply feels actually rewarding.
“Sunday runs are a number of the hardest,” she admits, however hilly countryside round Clitheroe ought to present the right stimulus for the notoriously undulating New York course.
“I’d all the time thought Chicago [one of the fastest marathon courses in the world] or someplace like that may be my first marathon, however after I bought this chance I believed truly the time doesn’t matter, it’s fairly an enormous discipline and it will likely be extra of a race than possibly a flat out effort, so it takes the stress off.
“I believe that’s the factor, I wished one thing the place I wasn’t completely targeted on time or having to hit sure splits, I’d quite simply see the way it unfolds, and this matches completely.”
Views change, and after observe blackouts and forgotten laps, the streets of New York will present model new experiences and memorable moments. It has been a protracted highway again for the 30-year-old however there’s no rush for this one. It’s, in any case, a marathon not a dash.
