by Stuart Weir
Jess Warner-Judd. Part 2 Becoming a Marathon runner
Once when I was talking to Jess Warner-Judd I remarked that I had seen her run 800, 1500, 3K, 5K, 10K. She replied “When I was an 800m runner I definitely didn’t think I was going to keep going up the distances to the 10K”. Then after a few half-marathons, she ran a full marathon in New York this year.
She started with the 800 but felt it was “just way too short for me. I get so nervous about it and it all comes down to positioning. And I realized I haven’t got that raw speed – like I think I’m fast But I watched people like Keely and I would never be able to compete with her at all over 400. So I moved up to the 1500 and I enjoyed that. And then I dabbled a bit in the 5K. I think the five is probably the one I enjoyed least. The10K was the one I fell in love with. So I just stuck at it”. She regards her 8th place in the World Championship 10K final in 2023 as her best track race. She did a few half-marathons and set a target of a full marathon in 2025
2024 started well with a fast 10K on the road and solid half-marathon, both in Spain. Then in the European Championship track 10K in Rome she dropped out. She was taken to hospital, was told she had had a seizure, and ultimately diagnosed with a form of epilepsy and did not race again for over 6 months. She told me the Rome incident had been “really scary to hear how serious it was afterwards because obviously I wasn’t like conscious. Coming back to running was really hard. And you kind of think, is it worth it? I love running, but health comes first”. She explained how hard it was: “you’re having counselling and trying to get over the trauma of that happening and just trying to race on the track again. That was the hardest bit. And I found that I couldn’t do it”.
She decided not to have a track season in 2025 but ran 2 low-key track races and five road races, including three half-marathons. Then she told her dad and coach she was thinking about an autumn marathon and his reaction was “I think that’s a terrible idea”! They agreed to take it week by week and make a decision in October. “I sat down with my dad maybe a month before and we looked at all the training I’d done and I think he was like, ‘I think you can do this’”. Training was going well with weekly mileage 120-130. Her dad was keen for her to experience 26 miles before the day. So she did a 20 mile run, preceded by a 3 mile warm-up and followed by 3 mile warm-down. Having done that they were confident that her body was ready for a marathon.
As a track runner, Jess found the routine of marathon training challenging. Instead of training cycles being broken up by the fun of racing, she found the training relentless: “I think it teaches you to be quite strong mentally because it’s week by week. You have to just keep putting the miles in and you’re not really getting the reward, as you can’t just jump into a race. You can’t do that because you’re exhausted. And I think that was what was hard because you’re just constantly training and hoping that it will all come good at the end. It’s very different from a track season where you kind of race yourself into shape”.
In part three Jess takes us through New York Marathon Day
