Newsreader Sophie Raworth: ‘My job is very high pressure – running clears that completely’

She may love the buzz of a busy newsroom, but when BBC News presenter Sophie Raworth is running, she likes it quiet.

There are no earbuds for the Six O’Clock News and News At Ten presenter, who for two decades has completed 15 marathons all over the world, at least three ultra-marathons, run the length of the Thames, and this weekend ran her 13th London Marathon with her 21-year-old daughter, Ella.

“I don’t listen to music, I don’t listen to podcasts, I have nothing in my ears. I just look around and listen and I can hear my feet and I can hear my breath and it just clears my head.

“My job is very high pressure, intense, you’ve got to really focus, and running just clears that completely.”

Raworth has now written Running On Air, an autobiographical homage to the sport which has changed her life, featuring accounts of the immense running challenges which have helped her through both professional setbacks and personal hardships, including the deaths of her beloved father, Richard, and her great friend and BBC colleague, George Alagiah.

Breakfast TV presenter and recently crowned winner of Strictly Come Dancing Natasha Kaplinsky had stepped into the role. Raworth was miffed.

A BBC editor, who was also a friend, advised her not to make a fuss and to play the long game – the best advice she was ever given, she says now.

Out of the blue, she received an invitation from Olympian Brendan Foster inviting her to be a ‘celebrity runner’ in the Great North Run, a half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields.

She was 38 and had never run more than a couple of miles in her life, but her husband Richard Winter, who enjoyed running, encouraged her – so running started as a distraction from her upheaval at work.

“I’d had two kids very close together – they’re 18 months apart – and I wanted to get fit again. I mean, I just did no sport, nothing in my 20s and 30s.”

The presenter, who has three children, pulled out of the 2024 London Marathon at 20 miles after breaking her ankle, but it didn’t stop her presenting the Chelsea Flower Show wearing wedges soon after, much to the horror of her consultant, which resulted in a longer road to recovery and forced her to rely on crutches and a knee scooter for weeks.

But the book is uplifting and inspirational as she becomes stronger with each challenge and delights in finding a running community, many of whom have become good friends.

“I love the community that has grown up around running, because you think it’s a lonely sport. They always talk about the loneliness of the long-distance runner but I’ve discovered great friends,” she says.

It’s clear Raworth is a ‘give it a go’ type of person, up for a challenge, frequently pushing herself literally miles outside her comfort zone. She’s run up and down mountains, across deserts (completing the 150-mile Marathon des Sables across the Sahara), smashed trail races and all six major world marathons.

Running has changed her, she agrees.

“It has made me feel very grounded and given me huge confidence. I’m 58 next month and I never expected that I’d get better in my 40s and 50s than I was in my 20s and 30s. It’s very empowering. I feel strong and I feel fit and I enjoy the challenge.”

She runs four times a week, largely in the morning, from her home in West London before going into work, but if she can’t fit it in she’ll run to work, carrying her gear in her backpack.

There have been no lasting ill-effects on her knees, she insists. She regularly goes to the gym but doesn’t overtrain.

In 2025 she pulled out a week before the London Marathon when her father was very ill with Parkinson’s. He died just a year ago at home, surrounded by his family.

“My father physically declined because of Parkinson’s and it was awful to watch because he was a very strong ‘can-do’ man. Even in the last days of his life he never gave up.”

Running helped her cope with the grief, she agrees.

“I remember when he died and I just ran out of the door and went on what was effectively a tour of my childhood.

“He was such a determined man. He’d power walk up this hill in Richmond Park, which is where I ran when he died. I did it because he couldn’t.”

His death – and her mother’s deteriorating physical state – made Raworth conscious of the fact that in years to come she might not be able to do what she can now.

“My mother is 26 years older than I am and in a wheelchair and unable to walk. She’s nearly 84. I say in the book that she didn’t do sport like I do now, although she was very active but certainly didn’t go to the gym. I hope the strength I have now will future-proof me.”

She keeps in touch with the family of her late colleague and fellow presenter George Alagiah, who died in 2023 aged 67 from cancer.

“I think about him all the time and I see him every day,” she says. “He’s on my wall right by my fridge, there’s a picture of him with my Boston Marathon medal.

“He was a wonderful man and my middle daughter (Georgia) is named after him. He was somebody with huge qualities. I can still hear his voice. I’m still so sad that he’s not here, because he was so interested in life and he has such a gorgeous family. It’s terrible that he was taken away so young.”

Never still for long, Raworth’s next challenge is mountain running in the summer.

“I’m going to the Alps with my friend. We’re staying in refuges. I’ve never done the refuge thing where you stay in these mountain refuges at altitude night after night. You just take what you need for four or five days. But it’s incredible being able to get out there.”

“I’ve still got my wedges. I can wear them now,” she says, smiling.

Running On Air: From BBC Headlines to Life-Changing Finish Lines by Sophie Raworth is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Sport, priced £20. Available now