AIR traffic control permitting, Steph Twell will deliver a speech today with anecdotes sourced from the head and the heart.
Appointed captain of the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team for tomorrow's European Cross Country Championships in the Bulgarian city of Samokov, the Scotland internationalist has accumulated wisdom beyond her 25 years, some good, some bad, all valuable.
Coming out of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she claimed a 1500 metres bronze, she was an affirmed prodigy, already with one Olympics behind her and apparently destined for several more. That ascent juddered to a halt on a wintry afternoon in Belgium when her ankle gave way and splintered. Championships and Games passed by as she toiled to recuperate. Twell, in running terms, dropped off the pack.
Now dividing her time among athletics, teaching and coaching near her base in West London, the scars remain but the healing process, she senses, is nearing its end. In New York recently, she came third in a quality road race. Victory soon followed in Leeds. Having toiled even to get to the starting line at Glasgow 2014 in the wake of one further setback, Twell can once again hope to put her best foot forward.
"I feel even more motivated," she confirmed. "I think I've got the balance of my life right now. When I was a junior, my running was everything and life really didn't come into it. But when I got injured, that phase of life, plus coming out of my teenage years and dealing with stuff, I've actually embraced it more. I can look at what I'm still achieving."
With more to come, she trusts. Her ankle remains fragile and occasionally problematic. In tandem with her long-time coach Mick Woods, a regime has been imposed to avoid poking at old wounds. "It's something I have to constantly maintain and give tlc to," she stated. Risks are evaluated and minimised whenever possible. "In wet weather, I can't necessarily run on grass at night because I have to think where my foot is." All in the aim of making a consistent push through this winter to truly examine her recovery come the spring.
The long and short term will feature in her captain's address to a squad of 36 which includes five of her fellow Scots, including the recent men's trial winner Callum Hawkins and runner-up Andrew Butchart, and the promising Aberdonian Rhona Auckland, all of whom have genuine chances of individual medals. Yet the British team is without some of its more illustrious names, the likes of Mo Farah long having determined that the art of cross country is no longer central to their aims.
Look from where he journeyed to where he is now, though, Twell notes. "It's how you get that opportunity on an international level; how you get that exposure. Before I got a track vest, I was running cross country. It is the purest form of running. It's a combination of putting myself on the line where there isn't much tactics. It's about running your heart out. There's a beauty to that, which is raw and lateral that you can't get anywhere else."
The UK has an illustrious tradition to uphold. In her ninth Euro Cross appearance, Twell has shared in many podium celebrations during the past decade. "I feel like we've stepped up before," she underlined. "I became good at cross country for a reason: because I had that belief."
That confidence, she prays, will carry onwards into 2015, back to the Grand Prix circuit and the prizes which matter most. She will begin the New Year in Australia, where her father resides, and then it will be onto the indoor boards and beyond.
"I've got to get through this season but Mick and I have set aims and goals that I want to achieve as a springboard for the following year," she said. "I'm not moving up to the 10,000m until after Rio unless I'm uber fit and I feel I can run one comfortably. I still feel more inclined towards 1500 and 5000."
There is ample unfinished business, you see. And perhaps a valedictory speech in the making.
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