Sophie Rayworth: "How running has helped me deal with grief"

“Even my kids ask, ‘what’s the news?’ And ‘what’s the weather?’ I know I work in the news, but I don’t actually do the weather!” she laughs. “Well, I shall be on my morning meeting shortly, let me see. I think the Iran war will be the main story, and the economy, but then I have no idea, which is what happens in my day. I’ll find out soon.

On TV for more than 30 years, Raworth takes it all in her stride. From major news events such as 9/11, Brexit, Covid, wars, through prime ministers and general elections, the death of the Queen and coronation of King Charles, and fronting events such as the VE Day celebrations and D-Day commemorations, 57-year-old Raworth has seen it all. When she’s not on screen, she doesn’t let up the pace either, having taken up running at the age of 40, despite thinking she was too old, and she hasn’t stopped since.

“As well as the headlines, people ask me about running when I’m out and about, saying they’d like to but they’re too old – they’re always about ten years younger than me,” she laughs. “I always say ‘you’re never too old. Try it!’”

Her new book, Running On Air, is the story of how she started running and found a new confidence, friendship and resilience to face up to challenges in work and life. Beginning with the half-marathon Great North Run in 2006, she went on to compete in the London Marathon in 2011 but collapsed two miles from the end. After treatment, she finished, and has now clocked up 20 plus marathons and 10 ultramarathons, and run all seven World Marathon Majors including the gruelling 150-mile Marathon des Sables across the Moroccan Sahara.

“I was asked to write the book and didn’t know what it would be about, but I started running marathons 15 years ago and it has become so much part of my identity that it’s in every part of my life, so it became about that as well.” The book looks back at the shy schoolgirl from Surrey who wouldn’t speak in class at 14, through her career at the BBC including two years at Look North, marriage to real estate broker Richard Winters and the birth of three now adult children, friendships including with late colleague George Alagiah for whom she fundraised at the Boston Marathon after his cancer diagnosis, the loss of her father who had Parkinson’s and her friendships, many formed through running, always putting one foot in front of other, whatever the weather – or headlines.​

When she talks about running, Raworth sounds surprised that she’s even doing it. That she is is down to both her husband and long-distance Olympic medallist and Great North Run founder Brendan Foster.

“People see me run and think I’ve been doing it nonstop since I was 15. I absolutely haven’t. I didn’t do any exercise at all in my 20s and 30s, nothing. My husband was the one who was the runner, then Brendan asked me to be one of the celebrity runners on the Great North Run when I was on maternity leave after my second child was born. My husband said ‘come on, try it’ and. I thought ‘I need a bit of a challenge’ so I did. I found it incredibly hard but I enjoyed the training. I did two Great North Runs then got pregnant again so I stopped completely.”

Even a fractured ankle during the 2024 London Marathon hasn’t put her off. She got the diagnosis in France over the telephone on the day she presented the D-Day Commemorations for the BBC.

It’s amazing Raworth has time for training given her schedule, although with older children in their early twenties and left home, things are easier now. In the past it was hard to manage.

“It’s hard for everybody. You just do. I’m really glad I did. I remember having Ella in 2004 and I was so in love with my baby I couldn’t bear the idea of going back to work and leaving her with anyone so I used to leave her with my mum and dad and my husband.

“There was definitely a point in my life when I thought, ‘oh my God, should I just be quitting and looking after my children?’ I’m so glad I didn’t, not just as an example for them, but you juggle and get through and come out the other side, and now I’ve got lots going on in my life and I’m very glad I’ve still got my career and my job.”

She puts the mindset she has developed in running marathons to use in her job, finding that when it came to interviewing Boris Johnson she was able to ‘harness the mind’ and pace herself. Her advice with challenges is to ‘break them down into chunks’.

“Also, something I realised I was writing over and over in the book, that everyone from my husband to ballet dancer Steven McRae were saying, – and I say it when I run – when you’re going up a mountain, don’t look at the top. Look at your feet, keep taking small steps and it will get you there. That’s become my approach to everything, whether it’s work, a marathon or life. If it seems like a huge challenge, don’t think of it in its entirety and don’t be freaked out. Just do the work, the training, the research and you’re prepared.”

As for more reality TV shows, Raworth has done the Strictly for Children in Need and Who Do You Think You Are? but declares them ‘too far out of my comfort zone’.

“I do like the idea of Race Across the World. I’d like to do that with my friend Susie.
We could run it,” she says.

“But I don’t really want to live too much on camera. I really like working on live TV and the challenge of it, but I’m not having to reveal much of myself. I’m doing the news. And I’m comfortable with that.” 


Running brings her plenty of opportunity to travel anyway and last month saw her in Scotland when she visited Barra with her daughter Ella to take part in an unofficial parkrun on the island.

“We flew in on a tiny plane and it looked like the Caribbean – Barra-bados, as they call it because we were so lucky with the weather. We landed on the beach. It’s absolutely spectacular. We had two nights and ran round the island and did the unofficial parkrun, partly along the beach, and also climbed Heaval, the hill behind Castlebay. The community was lovely too – we ended up at a country music quiz night. So I’ve done it all now,” she laughs.

“And now I’ve seen The Hebridean Way, I’ve got it in my head I want to run that.”

In the meantime, tomorrow she’ll be running the London Marathon with her daughter, raising money for Cure Parkinson’s.

“I say with her, but she’s got 36 years on me, so I think I’ll be running behind her!”

Right now, she’s got a news script to research and write, possibly rewrite, then deliver. Anything could happen. She’d better run.

Running On Air, by Sophie Raworth is published by Bloomsbury, £20