BBC News’ Sophie Raworth felt ‘claustrophobic’ by Covid but found perfect remedy
Sophie Raworth has spoken out about the effects of reporting on coronavirus and how it made her feel like the world was closing in on her as the pandemic took hold
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Sophie Raworth has spoken out about the effects of reporting on the coronavirus pandemic and how she felt there was no escape from it.
The BBC news anchor said the realities of the illness had made her feel “claustrophobic” as the world “became smaller”.
The 52-year-old newsreader found the perfect way of beating the feeling though, as she took to the roads and embraced running.
Speaking to Runner’s World UK, Sophie said: “It was the first story I’ve ever done where it wasn’t something you could escape.
“After all, it’s affecting your life as much as everybody else’s.”
She added: “This has been like no story I’ve done before. At work we live and breathe it, there’s no escape whatsoever.
“I did start to feel really claustrophobic. Everybody’s world is just that bit smaller.”
Sophie said running is the one thing that has offered a respite: “Running – particularly when I can go at the weekend and run free in the countryside – has become a real escape. I love it.
“It makes me really happy. I can just run along, not see anyone, get lung fulls of fresh air and not think about anything at all. It just silences your brain.”
Sophie has got into running ultramarathons and she said this has helped her take things as they come, saying: “What I learned then – and recently, with Covid, I have tried to apply it to life more generally – is that when everything seems to be terribly overwhelming, just take small steps.
“Some of those sand dunes, I’d look up and think: ‘There’s just no way I will get up there.’
“But then I’d think: ‘No, look down. Look at your feet. Take small steps. Just concentrate on them and you will get there eventually.”‘
Sophie also spoke about passing out during her first London Marathon in 2011. She said: “I was absolutely fine until about 17 miles.
“But I hadn’t drunk enough. Suddenly my skin was getting goosebumps – ‘this is odd,’ I thought, ‘I’m really hot, but I’m cold.’
“I came through the underpass up out onto The Embankment and swerved smack into a barrier.”
Sophie continued: “Somebody said: ‘Go on Raworth! You can do it!’ so I bounced back on to the course.”
“And the next thing I knew, I woke up on a stretcher, surrounded by people, with an oxygen mask on. I didn’t know what was going on. My brain just completely shut down.
“It was really, really frightening. I remember lying there, looking up at the sky and these nice wispy clouds and just thinking: ‘Oh my god, I’m dying.”‘
*The full interview is in the January 2021 issue of Runner’s World UK is on sale from December 3 and also available as a digital edition.
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