Brett Rushman: “I genuinely thought I could die”

The British distance runner reveals how his heart stopped on more than one occasion en-route to his first collegiate cross country meeting in September.

Brett Rushman states he is fortunate to be alive. “I genuinely thought I could die,” he says, reflecting on how a trip from California to Minnesota quickly turned into a life-threatening situation.

The Roy Griak Invitational should’ve been the race that marked the latest chapter in the 23-year-old’s career, with Rushman joining California Baptist University on a scholarship this past summer.

Rushman, who was part of Great Britain’s gold medal winning under-23 team at the 2024 European Cross Country Championships in Antalya, had hoped to start his new life across the pond with a big marker in his first collegiate race.

The Brit won the senior race at March’s UK Inter Counties Championships – which doubled up as the UK Athletics Cross Challenge Final – and then placed 14th in the 5000m at the UK Athletics Championships. That’s without mentioning his respective 5km and 10km personal bests of 13:37 and 28:43, both set in 2025.

“This year blew my expectations out of the water,” Rushman tells AW, who travelled to the US with the hopes of emulating his domestic success earlier in the season.

To get to the meeting in Minnesota, Rushman had to first take a two and a half hour flight from San Diego to Denver, before jumping on a connecting flight to Minneapolis.

During the journey to Denver however, the Brit felt anxious and realised he was going to faint. Explaining to people in his row that he needed to lie down, Rushman passed out and was subsequently given oxygen by staff on the plane.

After landing at Denver International Airport, he was told that he needed to pass medical checks before travelling to Minnesota. Even though Rushman says the experience was “really scary”, he believed that he was okay.

“I felt a little bit embarrassed that there was such a big deal made about it on the flight,” he explains. “They were saying that paramedics were coming to get you off the flight and I had to walk down the flight. They said we’ll take you in the ambulance to the hospital and I was thinking ‘I’m fine, I’m healthy’.”

The situation soon turned serious. During the 20-mile journey to the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH), Rushman felt like he’d faint again when paramedics connected him to an Electrocardiogram (ECG) and IV fluids. Under blue lights, rushing down the highway, he passed out again.

When he woke up on this occasion, Rushman was told his heart had stopped for around 30 seconds. “I had no vitals during that time, so there was a sense of urgency after that,” he explains.

Upon arrival at the hospital, the Brit was rushed into an operating theatre and almost a dozen people quickly surrounded him. Within minutes of being in the room, Rushman blacked out again. When he woke up this time, doctors told the runner that his heart had stopped for almost a minute.

“I was getting more and more anxious as I had a load of tests and things being put into me,” he says. “That all contributed to it being a pretty bad environment for me to be in. When doctors told me that my heart had stopped again, I genuinely thought I could die. I felt helpless. I went from being this pretty good runner and being fit and healthy all my life to my heart suddenly stopping.

“I was also convinced I wasn’t going to run again. I think they were natural thoughts at that point! My philosophy was ‘what will be will be’.”

Rushman was subsequently fitted with a temporary pacemaker and transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. Although all of his immediate family were back in the UK, the Brit travelled with Zac Kirk, Assistant Cross Country and Track Coach⁣ at California Baptist University, who stayed with him throughout his time in hospital.

The distance runner’s biggest frustration was that he couldn’t tell loved ones what exactly caused his heart to stop on multiple occasions. After three days, he received a diagnosis – vasovagal syndrome, where your nervous system overreacts to a trigger, causing a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure, reducing blood flow to the brain, leading to dizziness or brief loss of consciousness.

However Rushman’s vagus nerve – which helps regulate essential functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion – had a stronger effect than normal on his heart. Coupled with the fact that his heart rate and blood pressure was already low, his heart stopped.

“It’s not uncommon to faint but I had a much more dramatic version,” he tells AW. “So yeah, I’m in a very unique category.”

Rushman also reveals that his heart automatically restarted itself and first learnt of that fact from doctors in hospital. He states that as soon as the stimulation in his vagus nerve regulated itself, his heart started beating again.

In the ward, Rushman adds that doctors were undecided about how to best prevent the 23-year-old from having a similar episode in the future. They decided against the more intrusive option of a permanent pacemaker, mainly down to his age, and concluded that salt tablets would be the preferential option.

“The sodium helps increase blood volume and maintain blood pressure, preventing the drop in pressure and heart rate that causes fainting,” Rushman says. “So I take the tablets every time I fly and that raises my blood pressure, so it creates a buffer. If it does happen, it’s less likely to be as bad and hopefully my heart doesn’t stop again.

“That was the only thing they prescribed me. They told me if another episode happened then I’d have to lie horizontal as it significantly reduces the risk as the blood goes straight to my brain. Doctors said such an incident could very well happen again but it’s hard to predict what will trigger it as it’s very individualistic to people. You only find that out through experience. It’s something that I try to put to the back of my mind now.”

Rushman, eager to get back running, started off training slowly. He initially took five days off and only did easy runs the following week. Now back in California, the Brit started to build up his base level, with his first competition being the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin on October 17 – just over a month after his medical emergency. Rushman placed 122nd in the 8km cross country race but competing in it was an achievement in itself.

Two weeks later he placed seventh over 8km at the WAC Cross Country Championships in Texas before finishing 121st over 10km at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Missouri on November 22.

“Once I got that training beneath me, I felt okay and I ran pretty well,” Rushman tells AW. “I was kind of happy with it. I was like, okay, I could at least run well and I was back in some shape. Once you’re on the start line, you back yourself and you’re like, okay let’s go!

“So when I finished 121st at the NCAAs, I was initially disappointed. It took me a little bit of time to properly reflect and be like ‘okay you don’t have to be so hard on yourself this time’. This was definitely a time where I had to sit back and go ‘you made it to the start line and at least you’re alive’.”

Rushman has lofty goals within the sport. Having grown up in an athletic family – his mum ran for Northern Ireland and his dad was a 1:52 800m/3:52 1500m runner – he was inspired to take the sport more seriously after watching the London 2012 Olympics.

The then teenager joined his local club Herts Phoenix and, in 2018, life changed when Andy Hobdell joined the set-up in Ware. Hobdell occasionally brought in elite athletes like Paul Pollock and Kevin Seaward to the club, with Rushman thriving off the challenge of running alongside those with international experience.

After training with Hobdell for a few months, Rushman placed third at his local Metropolitan League at Claybury Park, before then winning in Welwyn Garden City and Uxbridge over the next two months respectively.

“I’d never been that high up before,” Rushman says. “And I was like ‘okay if I actually stick to this, I might be quite good’. Andy’s training is very much focused on the aerobic side, making sure you’re really, really fit and strong. Doing a lot of threshold work. I didn’t really understand that at the time so I just enjoyed being in the group and he kept it quite interesting. I enjoyed just getting better and training consistently, which kind of showed in my results.”

Fast forward to now and Rushman is still in touch with Hobdell, with the duo exchanging messages even though he is now based in California.

“I have a really great relationship with Andy,” Rushman adds. “He’s known me since I was quite young and he knows my family quite well as well. I still keep Andy in the loop because I know that when I come back, I’ll be training with him.”

Rushman wants to represent Great Britain on a consistent basis in the long-term, especially after getting a taste of what it was like to top a championships podium at last year’s Euro Cross. Alongside Will Barnicoat, David Stone, James Kingston, Peter Molloy and Dafydd Jones, he was part of the British under-23 team that secured gold in Antalya. It was a moment that Rushman will never forget.

“That was one of the best experiences of my life,” he says. “I knew I had a shot of qualifying for the team and on the day everything worked out. I was in really good company in that GB team. It was so special being part of a cohort with Will and David, who I was with at the University of Birmingham for a number of years.”

Last summer Rushman also travelled to Paris to watch the Olympic men’s 1500m final, where he saw Cole Hocker beat Josh Kerr to the gold medal. Witnessing that moment in the Stade de France further inspired the Brit and he now wants to aim for the stars.

“Why should I limit myself?” he says. “I’ve not done a huge amount of high mileage training yet, so I think I can go a lot faster. I would say the 5km is my preferred distance but I’m under no illusion I need to be faster to qualify for future major championships.

“I grew up watching Mo Farah dominate and he was my childhood idol. So, absolutely, I want to be there. But it’s very hard to get to that point and you have to be consistent and stay fit for starters. So it’s one step at a time. I’d quite like to qualify for Euro Cross again next year and then we’ll go from there.”

The fact that Rushman, after everything he has been through, has this mindset is remarkable in itself. Given the level of adversity he has had to overcome, who would bet against him from achieving his dreams?