Felicity is a star runner almost by accident

Feb 26 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

The term ‘all-rounder’ is often used in sport but Stuart Rayner meets a rapidly emerging youngster taking it to extremes

IN September 2006, Felicity Milton was a budding entrepreneur, award-winning engineer, tennis player and rugby fan with ambitions to represent her country at showjumping, skiing or hockey.

Less than 18 months later, the 21-year-old is one of the country’s most promising distance runners after deciding to concentrate on a sport which then did not even figure on her long list of interests.

But even the Durham City athlete who qualified for a Great Britain vest after only six races has her limits and will not entertain the idea of competing in this summer’s Olympics.

Milton stumbled into the sport by chance, trying to get fit for another. “Hockey was a sport I played at school and loved,” she explains. “I’d been very unfortunate with injury. I cracked my skull one year, I broke my ankle another year coming through a car windscreen and the following year they never actually diagnosed the problem but I had my leg in a full cast over the whole summer and was off sport for three months – I hated it.

“I was incredibly fortunate when a hockey ball hit my skull. There was a tiny bit of brain bruising so I lost my short-term memory. Apparently I was quite funny to be around! I had to play in a scrum cap for a bit, which was embarrassing.

“That all led me into university (at Durham) injured so I didn’t really start playing hockey until almost the end of the season. The following year I thought I’d get down to pre-season training on the track and see if I could get back to the level I’d been playing at whilst I was at school. Everyone was training, from athletics to rugby and hockey, working on general core fitness. They were short of runners and the university hockey games hadn’t started so I ran in those and kind of did quite well.

“I was playing hockey and running for quite a while and then Max Coleby, my coach at the minute, said, ‘Actually, Fliss, I think you’ve got something there so I’d like you to give it a go if that’s what you want to do.’ I decided it was. That was early November 2006. I ran the Liverpool trials at the end of that month.”

She came second to Commonwealth Games silver medalist Jo Pavey, earning qualification for the European Cross Country Championships. That it was only her sixth competitive race was, she feels, an advantage.

“I went into a lot of races at first being completely naive,” she admits. “When I ran the Liverpool trials I didn’t know who Jo Pavey was, which was stupid! Now I know it’s embarrassing! If I’d known what I know now I think I’d have been a nervous wreck. Running naive helped me a lot. I guess everything has changed for me since.

“In some respects it’s just opened up a world of opportunities. It’s exciting every day just seeing where it’s taken me, what I’ve done, where I’ve been, the people I’ve met and the feelings I’ve felt. I’ve done a lot with my life and this is one thing I enjoy. You can take it individually, explore it and come back with a real sense of satisfaction by trying to be the best you can.”

Milton was speaking to publicise June’s Great Women’s Run in Sunderland, where she will run her first mass-participation race at what is expected to be her specialist distance, 10k. Even though she is concentrating on athletics and the third year of a four-year engineering degree, she retains broad sporting interests.

“I’ve always had this little fire in my eyes – a dream more than anything – to do something for my country,” she reveals. “I’ve always played a lot of sport and wanted to take something forward but never had the guts to. Also, I’ve never wanted to give up something to let something else go further.

“I’ve had people in my life, like my showjumping coach, saying, ‘You’re going to have to put a lot of time into this so what are you going to stop doing?’ My reaction’s been, ‘Excuse me? Say that again.’ But I think the time is right.

“They’re things I can go back to. Maybe I’ll be a pentathlete when I’m too old to run fast – not that I run particularly fast now. I still ski and pick up a hockey stick occasionally and a tennis racket in the summer but I’ll do that to a social level. If you want to take sport seriously you can’t be a jack-of-all-trades, you’ve got to focus and my focus is on athletics now.”

That has not distracted her from the academic side – the two are co-existing quite happily. She sees herself as an entrepreneur and engineering as the means to that end and is currently designing a training shoe which will measure the stresses and strains on athletes without affecting performance.

This summer she will travel to America to train at Stanford University and recce the universities offering her a PhD. An award from the Royal Academy of Engineering (she was also a finalist in the 2005 Young Engineers for Britain) is funding her summer but the scholarship that will eventually allow her to study in the States will reward her athletic prowess.

“I’m so lucky,” she beams. “I’m taking the opportunities while they’re still there. I can’t wait to go to the States. It’ll be two years but a lifetime’s experience.”

One experience she will forgo is being one of the promising athletes GB sends to the Olympics this year as part of their development for 2012. That is an idea too fanciful even for Milton.

“There was certainly no talk of going to Beijing from my coach,” she says. “Lots of people are asking me if I’d be going but if I’d been born 10 days later I’d still be doing the juniors. For me it would be a ridiculous thing to do, though to other people it seems a reasonable question. As far as Beijing’s concerned it’s a no but London 2012’s a dream and a goal. I couldn’t explain the feeling if I were selected for it.”

I was incredibly fortunate when a hockey ball hit my skull. Apparently I was quite funny to be around!

BUPA Great Women's Run

MILTON will be joined by a host of leading female athletes and thousands of fun-runners when the third staging of the Great Women’s Run takes place in Sunderland on Sunday, June 15. 2007 World Marathon Majors champion Gete Wami and Blaydon Race regular Cathy Mutwa are past winners.

The 10km course starts and finishes in Seaburn, taking in Roker Pier and Roker Park. A 2.8km junior event, for boys and girls aged eight to 14, takes place the same day.

For further information on either event, call 0845 389-2200, or visit www.greatrun.org, where online application forms are also available.