England Masters International
Preston Harriers’ Nicola Sutton (2nd left) has achieved her greatest successes in 2024, representing England Masters 3 times on both road and cross country, but her route to stardom began 25 years ago and hasn’t all been plain sailing. Nicola joined Notts AC aged just 13, shortly after the death of her mother, and found that the distraction of training, competition and making so many new friends helped her and her father to cope with their grief. She reached international standard, competing internationally in cross country and winning national medals on the track, but gave up the sport at the age of 23 and didn’t run for another 13 years. Nicola married Adam Sutton, former international runner and Preston Harriers record holder, and moved to Preston 6 years ago. She is a busy mum to Ava (8) and Alfie (3) and has kept in touch with the sport through her work as an athletics media professional, writing for British and international publications and the BBC and travelling the globe to work at major meetings such as the Diamond League circuit.
Two years ago, she felt fit in the gym and wondered how that fitness would transfer into running. Nicola started by trying parkrun and was running the 5km course in under 19 minutes within 6 weeks before tearing her hamstring due to not having a good enough training base. After lots of rehab, she teamed up with Preston Harriers stalwart Steve Hallas, who is now her coach. In 2023, she represented England in the Masters International cross country race, and she also ran for England in the recent Masters International which was incorporated into the Mid Cheshire 5km. She completed this race in 17 minutes 25 seconds, her 3rd fastest ever time, and finished 2nd FV35 in the international race. The winner was her England and Preston Harriers teammate, Carla Davies, who clocked a chip time of 17:04. Nicola was happy to improve her lifetime best for 5km, set back in 2009, to 17:21 in June of this year and she is ranked 2nd in the UK this year in her age group for 3,000 metres on the track with a time of 10 minutes 9 seconds. Her aims for the winter are to gain selection for the England Masters cross country team again and turn back the clock and return to sub-35 minute 10km shape. Nicola’s goals for 2025 are to break 17 minutes for 5km before she turns 40 next September and to break the 10 minute barrier for 3,000 metres.
Nicola says:
I’m so lucky to have Steve as my coach – his experience and amazing guidance and support has been invaluable to helping me to tap into my potential, and he knows how incredibly grateful I am to him. I feel so fortunate to benefit from such a fantastic training group comprised of Steve and three incredible female runners – Carla Davies, Hannah Jacobsen and Emma McColm. We’re all really great friends and having each other to train with is priceless. Without the support of my wonderful husband & children, and our extended family, I wouldn’t have been able to return to competition due to the high demands of training and travelling for races, so I hope they know how much I appreciate them all. The international call-up races were really special full-circle moments for me – wearing the national kit again after I was so sure I’d never race ever again are achievements I’m really proud of. The injury this winter absolutely gave me a new perspective on my running – it’s definitely made me never take it for granted again and extremely grateful to be able to push my body. After such a nightmarish time, I felt incredibly blessed to enjoy a dream summer season – improving my 5km time by 35-seconds and managing so many consistent race times. I’m hopeful with a solid winter under my belt that I can achieve my goal of sub-17 next summer…fingers crossed!