After a fall that could have ended her career, Steph Twell, the Scot from Aldershot is back in the race

WHEN Steph Twell fell it was as if a trapdoor had opened. The 2010 season had been her breakthrough as a senior athlete, with a Scottish record in the 5,000 metres and a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in the 1,500m.

She had wintered well and was looking forward to a 2011 season that would culminate in the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

After the fall in February there was no chance of that. Instead, her season began – and ended – last month in a local cross-country relay. The woman who had been third fastest in the Commonwealth was now eighth fastest in Aldershot.

That seven-month hiatus was tough, but the 22-year-old knows it could have been longer and tougher. The injury she sustained to her right ankle during a cross-country race in Belgium was no simple break, but a spiral fracture, damage that would take one metal plate, six screws and hundreds of hours of physiotherapy to put right.

Twell had been in an unassailable lead at the time, with a clear run to the finish. It was where she likes to be best: clear of the pack, blazing her own trail. Then her foot stuck in the mud, and within seconds that serenity had turned to anguish.

Yet even when the prognosis was uncertain, both Twell and her coach Mick Woods were insistent on one thing: this was a setback to her career, not a threat to it. She would be back.

And now she is. Back to doing two training sessions a day at St Mary’s University College in west London, where Woods has been Performance Coach since 2003. Back to being a part of the elite group of British runners who are about to spend a month working at altitude in Kenya. Back to the life she loves.

She and Woods have been vindicated in their refusal to accept that her injury was career-threatening, a refusal that she insists was about far more than putting a brave face on things. Rather, it was in itself an important element of her recovery.

“As soon as you start to doubt, questions start going through your mind,” she says. “You’ve just got to say: I was this athlete who had been achieving the things that I’d done and there was no reason I shouldn’t be there again.

“Yes, I’ve got an injury, but if anything I’ll be stronger than what I was before. The ankle is sometimes a bit achy in the morning, but I really believe in hard work, and as soon as you get me up and running I’ve no doubt.”

Mental strength has always been a key ingredient of Twell’s success on the track, and it played a major role when she was on the treatment table too. Once she got up and running again, however, she had to learn to temper her determination with patience, as her body was unable to meet every demand her mind made of it.

“There are times when my body still feels I can run fast, but because of the amount of time I’ve had off, the cardiovascular system can’t match that. So that’s frustrating, especially because I left off at such a high level.

“I was riding such a high, then it was a complete contrast to feel so low. It has been really tough.

“I’ve not put too much pressure on myself. I’ve been able to run twice today, and that’s an achievement. I’ve done a weights session, so that’s good.”

During the early stages of her recovery, that frustration would leave her close to tears. Now she is more inclined to laugh. “I’m glad I’m not a horse, by the way,” she says. “If I was, they’d have shot me.”

It is too early yet to know if and when Twell will be at the top of her form again, but she knows she is on the right track and becoming stronger every day. In that sense, every training session is an important step for her, though of course there are a few days that stick out in her mind as landmarks on the road to recovery.

“The first day I could properly walk was significant. I can’t remember what date it was, but it was a fantastic time.

“I was at Bisham Abbey doing hydrotherapy, strengthening my calf. My leg was so weak because of the muscle I’d lost that I had to do the work in the water.

“The first day I could walk on land was amazing, That was quite significant. And another one was July 4th, funnily enough, independence day, when I ran for the first time on an anti-gravity treadmill. Putting foot to floor, I really had to engage my mind. It was brilliant.

“When I ran in that relay race in September, I thought it might feel totally alien. But it didn’t. Autopilot kicked in.”

“I wanted to do it mainly because it was in my home town, Aldershot, and for my club. I really like to stay grounded: that’s where I come from, and those are the bread-and-butter races that I’ve been brought up on.

“The support was amazing. Everyone was really, genuinely glad to see me back running.

“I want to be racing. I’ve been doing all the training, I’ve been through the whole rehabilitation process, and it’s like, What’s it for?

“I love to race. That’s what I do.

“It gave me a benchmark. I got eighth fastest time of the day, which I was happy with. I was in control of my running.”

“Then Monday, 10th of this month, I was officially signed off by the surgeon. I’m all good to go and I don’t have to see him again.”

Twell and Woods, who has been her coach for a decade now, have pencilled in a career plan that sees her progress through the distances until by the 2020 Olympics she will be running a marathon. But it is just a sketch, not etched in stone, and at present her focus remains very much on the 1,500m and 5,000m. She is unsure if doubling up will be feasible at next year’s London Olympics, but if it can be done, she will do it.

“If I could have that opportunity, I would love to. We don’t think the schedule would allow it, unless you were to get knocked out of the 1,500 before the final.

“But if it were to fit in, why not? I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I hope to run fast early season in the 5k and get a qualifying time so that can be under my belt as a safety net. Then I can put all my focus on the 1,500.”

She aims to run the same combination at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow too, and is sure she can learn from her experience of doubling up in Delhi last year. “I got fourth in the 5,000 in India, but I think I was a bit tired from the 1,500. I think I’ll be stronger mentally and physically by then.

“I went out to Delhi quite late, and the travel took it out of me a lot. Whereas I’ll be able to base myself in Glasgow and it will be more conducive to running better. The food, I’m sure, will be better, and the fact so many people are supporting you will lift you.”

The world junior 1,500m champion in a Great Britain vest in 2008, Twell opted the following year to represent Scotland at Commonwealth Games. The choice may have come as a surprise to those who knew her only as a girl who had grown up in the south of England and had an English father, but to her, having a mother from Paisley, it made complete sense.

“My mum brought me up saying that I’m Scottish. If you said to my Scottish mum I wasn’t Scottish, she wouldn’t have it. I’ve got Scottish blood in me, and that is that.

“She says that’s where I get my determination and my mental strength from. I like that. I’m proud of my heritage.

“Athletics is something I’ve done with my dad – I always remember seeing grotty trainers at the door, and my dad stretching against the wall before he went off on a run – but my mum has always been supportive of me as well.

“And I loved the warmth I felt every time I’ve been up to Scotland. Since I chose to represent Scotland I haven’t noticed anything negative, really. I think someone asked if I was ever paid to ‘turn Scottish’, but no, that’s not the case.”

After a certain amount of time watching her father as he prepared to go out on a run, Twell decided to go with him. She was nine then, part of an Army family, and soon found that athletics fitted in well with the nomadic lifestyle that came with her father’s job.

“It wasn’t until I found running that I realised here was something you could do from your doorstep. In the Army we were always moving, and I used to play outdoors all the time.

“That’s the beauty of being an army kid – you’re in a really safe environment. And then every school I went to had a cross-country club, which I loved.”

In the early years, Woods was close to being a third parent to the teenage Twell. With daughters nine and seven years older than his protegee, the coach found it natural to take a paternal role. These days he takes more of a back seat, but remains immensely proud of Twell, whom he described in a talk earlier this year as “my life’s work in a way”.

“I’m so honoured when he said that,” is her response. “Mick’s been coaching for so many years, and I am really a refinement of that whole coaching process that he’s been through with so many athletes.

“I’m the first athlete he’s taken to the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, all these championships. I find it so rewarding, because we are such a pair.

“I’m Mick’s life’s work, but my life is for Mick as well. My achievements don’t just mean everything to me, they mean so much to Mick. It’s the biggest compliment you can have.”

Perhaps the athlete and the coach were always destined to work together; for by the time they met, they already had a philosophy in common. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th-century American writer, had long been a source of inspiration for Woods; and coincidentally, Twell’s father had given her a birthday card with an Emerson quote on it.

“Don’t follow where the path may lead,” it read. “Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

The sentiment on it is one that applies to Twell to this day, both literally in the case of her preference for being out in front of the field, and metaphorically in her approach to life. “I just find it fascinating that he explores life in a different way,” she says.

“It’s about finding meaning and purpose in things, and about not fitting into certain stereotypes.”

One of those stereotypes, which Twell abhors, is the addiction to social media. She is not on Facebook or Twitter; she has no desire to fritter away her days.

“I just don’t understand it. Maybe I’m not interesting enough.

“Everything in life changes so quickly – you know, a new iphone’s out, or something – and it seems you’re always trying to find happiness in something new.

“Annie Lennox had a great quote: ‘Twitter is you becoming your own stalker’. You know, ‘I’ve been to Starbucks’. It’s just puff, egotistical, and I don’t really like that.

“It’s not for me, unfortunately. I’d much prefer to have a proper conversation with someone. I value the friendships I have.

“It’s just conformity, isn’t it? I suppose being an athlete you’re very individual, and selfish a little bit by nature.”

Lest all this sound a bit serious when printed in black and white, it should be said that in person Twell is engaging, light-hearted and good-humoured. She laughs a lot, including at herself, and appreciates a subtle sense of humour in others, including Andy Murray.

“I think he’s got a brilliant sense of humour. He’s got a really dry sense of humour. I really love tennis, but I’ve never been to Wimbledon. I really want to see him.

“I think he’s very professional. He’s passionate about the game: he’s not concerned about anything else, he just concentrates on the game.”

Her willingness to blaze her own trail is reflected in her musical tastes too. She loves the raw authenticity of Americana, and dislikes more overtly commercial genres.

“It’s Americana, but now I think about it some of it’s Canadian, like Midlake. I love Midlake. They’re not pretentious in any way.

“I went with Mick to see Iron And Wine. You should check that out – a really beautiful artist. Check out the album The Shepherd’s Dog.

“I can’t listen to stuff on the radio. I have to switch off Rihanna, because it is literally like she’s shaking her crotch at you. She’s just talking about drinking, or having a fight. Honestly, I just thought if I had kids I would never let them listen to this.

“She can be fun. If that’s what people like her for. But I much prefer music I can unwind to and appreciate the instruments. Really appreciate the artists, not the materialism that comes with it.

“But then again, I do like a bit of pop, because you know who I’ve just been checking out? Kate Bush. She’s mad. I love her. I’ve been listening to Babushka and Running Up That Hill, Wuthering Heights, Army Dreamers I really like. She’s so in control of what she wants to do.”

Now she is up and running again, that remark could just as well be about Twell herself. So in control of what she wants to do, and so utterly determined to do it.

l Steph Twell is an ambassador for McCain, Principal Partner of UK Athletics. For more information, please visit www.mccaintrackandfield.co.uk.