Stuart Weir talks to the British runner as he clocks 2:24:45 in the Big Apple.
Jess Warner-Judd bettered her marathon debut in New York earlier this month with a time of 2:24:45 to finish seventh overall.
The Briton, who clocked a half-marathon best of 67:06, is now ninth in the all-time UK marathon record.
What were your thoughts at the starting line?
It was like a different chapter, if that makes sense. I felt like I had done all the track work and then it was like. “I wonder what I can do along the way?” I think a half marathon is very different because you’re doing it alongside your running training, whereas for a marathon you have to really focus on that one race.
What were your expectations? do you have a time target or placement?
I had no expectations. I think New York is such a tough course. I thought I was in good shape, but you never know since I’ve never trained for a marathon before. I didn’t know if my training turned into a good marathon.
So what’s the vibe like in New York?
Oh, it was amazing. It was all weekend. I’ve never experienced anything like it. So to start with Frank Sinatra playing New York, New York, going across Staten Island, across that bridge and then running 10 miles in Brooklyn was the best experience of my life. I think the crowd, the music, everything. If anything, I think I was probably like “you need to relax a little.”
How did you run the marathon?
I did all my long sessions and loved my 20-milers where I live in Lancashire which is hilly. And I think that made me appreciate that this is hard. You don’t want to go too early because if your legs go on these hills, they really will.
From the beginning I was with the leading group. There was a group of about 15 of us very early on, and it was a group together. So I’d say around 10 miles, that group will split up a little bit. When you come to the water station, you might get like 5 seconds, and then it comes back together, and he kept doing it, I’d say about 10 miles, 11 miles. And then halfway through the 13th, it was a lot like your own. You could see people ahead, but you weren’t in the group as such.
I think I took it because mile 16 was the halfway mark for me. So I thought, if I make it to 16, then you can start by working a little harder. And I’m really glad I did because there were some moves that were made pretty early on, I think about mile 5, 6, and then mile 10 where I think they ran like a 5:12 mile. And I was just like, I’m not going to go with it. I think I ran 5:18, 5:20. And I thought that’s fine, it’s even faster than I want to go, but I’m not up to it. So I tried not to catch and just be as patient as I could and run as smooth as I could. And then I think I got to maybe 16 and I was like, yeah, now let’s go.
Have you hit a wall?
If anything, I might have gone a little overboard (from 16 miles) because I think I got to 21 and said, “Oh, this is pretty tough, and you still have five miles to go.” Then my legs went all out for 24 miles. I thought I had to stop, honestly. I was like, I’m really struggling. But I knew then that I would end up in Central Park, I knew that I would make it to the finish line. So I think I got it right. I think if you asked me to run another mile, I might be like, absolutely not. But I think we just got it right. So it definitely paid off to be conservative.
At 24 miles it was like someone grabbed my legs and I said “just try and finish”. It was a very different feeling. And I think it’s more of a muscle breaking feeling. Whereas normally during a run you get tired or you can feel the lactic acid, but that wasn’t what I was feeling. It was more like sheer impact and breaking my quads. It was horrible to have. It was my first experience ever. So it looks like I won’t finish this. But then you learn a lot about yourself because you somehow get to the end.
From what you’ve said, it sounds like you’re comfortable throughout.
Yes, I really did. It was a strange thing because I think at 10km sometimes you say ‘I feel good’. And then you go through a little bit of a rough patch and then you come back. And the same thing with a half marathon in a way, like there can be a few miles where it’s really easy, some kilometers where it’s a little bit tough, and you’re back to feeling good again. And I didn’t really have that in the marathon. I think it was more like I felt really good. Then I might start feeling like, “I’m working hard, but I can keep it up.” And then I would say it was like a switch. Literally 24 years old and I can’t really remember much about the last two miles other than “one foot in front of the other, just shuffling to the end, even if you have to walk like you have to get there”. But luckily, yes, somehow I still ran a 5:40 mile through Central Park, which when I thought I was running about seven minutes, honestly. So I was pleasantly surprised.
So what did you learn about the marathon?
I learned it was unlike anything else I had ever done. Honestly, I think I’ve been really lucky the number of years I’ve been, like 12 years, in the majors or somehow on the world stage. So I’ve been really lucky to have that, but I would say the marathon was completely different. The number of courses is that you’re not just jumping from one treadmill to the next. So I think it teaches you to be pretty strong mentally because it’s week to week. You just have to keep putting in the miles and you don’t really get the reward because you can’t just jump into a race and be like, right, “I’m going to do it,” because you’re exhausted. I think it was tough because you just train all the time and you hope it all works out in the end. It’s very different from the track season where you kind of run into your form. I learned to be mentally strong. I think in the track season, from your last training session, you kind of have an idea of ​​what you’re going to do in the race. Whereas in a marathon, if it was, I wouldn’t have finished. When it comes to race day, that means nothing.
What was your reaction when you finished?
I was a little disappointed not to be in the top five because I put myself in the position to be in the top five. But the seventh, I was so happy with it. And then, when I saw the time, I honestly didn’t believe it. I wouldn’t dream of running that well. So it was the best debut I could have asked for.
It was also a strange race because it had never gone out that fast before. And then of course the year I did it, the course record was broken by two minutes. I think 2:24 would normally put me on the podium and then I’m seventh. So it’s one of those where you’re like, it’s just typical. Of course it did when I did. But I learned a lot and I think it was nice to run in a group, but it was also nice to be on my own because I think it’s pretty good practice if it happens in another marathon as well.
You are just two seconds behind Sifan Hasan
I was so sad actually, with a kilometer to go I passed him and probably had a gap of about 10 metres. And I thought, “Oh, this is good. Like I’ve never beaten him before.” So I was like, right, head down.
I beat him in Budapest, but he fell. So I guess it doesn’t really count. But I thought I was really going to beat him here. And then he had a sprint finish in those last 200 meters that I could only dream of. So when he went back in the past, I was like, yeah, two seconds isn’t bad. It was just, it was just amazing, you know, racing against people like Helen Obiri and Sharon Lockedi, people who are seasoned marathoners and to be on the same start line was just a dream, and then to actually not be too far behind was great too.
