Staring out into the wide blue yonder, Jessica Judd observed the swirl of the waves and contemplated whether to take the plunge.
In the closing months of her teens, with a surfboard in hand, she was just one among many carefree youths on the beach in Cornwall, the thrill of the surf and the expanse of the sea delivering freedom and exhilaration in liberal doses.
Yet not far from Land's End, one of the UK's brightest athletics prospects felt at the end of the road. "I just didn't want to train," she recounts. "That's the first time I've ever felt that. I was feeling a bit emotional. I didn't know what I wanted to do."
Four months ago, with so much promise unfulfilled, the young Englishwoman had reached the point where it seemed easier to paddle away than let the tide sweep her back to the track. At the close of a season where she had come fourth over 800 metres at the Commonwealth Games before reaching the European final, motivation seemed impossible to find.
The spectre of early burnout, she signals, was a genuine fear. "I was in such a weird place. I didn't try to watch athletics on TV. I wasn't into it at all. I just went out and did bodyboarding and had fun with it. I didn't really want to run. It was so strange."
Injured last winter, Judd battled back determinedly yet but she felt a step behind where her precocious self had previously nestled. In Glasgow, entering the final bend, she seemed poised for a medal. While Lynsey Sharp stampeded past, reserving her best for last, her domestic rival had nothing left to give and it was troubling indeed. "I read Paula Radcliffe's biography and she said the day she didn't want to put her trainers on was the day she should stop. I did think I'd got to that point."
Sense, of sorts, ultimately prevailed but it took an extreme makeover to rejuvenate her ambitions. Returning home to Canvey Island, she sat down with her coach Rob Denmark and declared her intent. With an impending move north, to start at Loughborough University, she made clear her intent. 'I just want to be a student and enjoy things,' she told him. Their partnership was amicably dissolved. "Rob was really supportive. He just told me to try and get the enjoyment back in my running."
Fresher's Week passed as it should, with fun and frivolity. It was only as term began that the desire to pull her spikes on slowly crept back. She approached the in-house sage George Gandy for guidance. He smoothed her return to the fray. At the Tuesday night sessions on campus, around 50 athletes of varying standards show up, the camaraderie removing some of the edge. "I usually stay in the middle or near the back," Judd laughs. "That way, the pressure's not on me. I can get the session done, work hard and then forget about it when I come back to study."
Judd 2.0 will make her 2015 track debut over 1500 metres at the Sainsbury's Indoor International in Glasgow. The summer, and a second crack at a world championships, is the priority, she underlines. This is merely a gentle reintroduction to the fray.
Now 20, Gandy will not let youth be an excuse. "Experience is great for future championships but I want to be competitive now," she affirms. Already, there is lost time to make up for. If 2014 taught her one harsh lesson, it was to appreciate that success is not guaranteed, merely earned.
"It made me realise a lot, that those special moments don't come around all the time," Judd confirms. "I was very lucky in 2013 to win the Diamond League in Birmingham, go under two minutes, wining the European Team Championships, going to the worlds, it all came together so quickly and I didn't really have time to deal with it all. I had to learn to step back and enjoy it. Last year made me realise I want to be up there and getting medals."
Meanwhile, Scotland's leading sprinter Kathryn Christie claims she is ready to lead a gradual revival of the art when she takes on former European champion Verena Sailer over 60 metres tomorrow. With no Scottish male or female qualifying for Glasgow 2014 below 400 metres, it is a void which needs filled, the Aberdonian declared. "That's quite motivating. People want to see us come through and be racing. So we definitely need to step up."
Remaining tickets for the Sainsbury's International will be available on the door at the Emirates Arena.
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