BBC newsreader Sophie Raworth has opened up about her ‘claustrophobic’ experience of working during the coronavirus pandemic.
The broadcaster, 52, said it was the first story she has never been able to ‘escape’, as it was affecting both her work and personal life once she left the studio.
She told Runner’s World UK: ‘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.’
Candid: BBC newsreader Sophie Raworth has opened up about her ‘claustrophobic’ experience of working during the coronavirus pandemic
‘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 revealed that she has tackled her feelings of claustrophobia by running, as she says it means that she can ‘silence’ her brain.
She said: ‘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 lungfuls of fresh air and not think about anything at all. It just silences your brain.’
On screen: The broadcaster, 52, said it was the first story she has never been able to ‘escape’, as it was affecting both her work and personal life once she left the studio (pictured)
Sophie added that she has been taking ‘small steps’ in order to find her way, and said: ‘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 discussed how ‘bizarre’ it felt to run to work through the middle of Piccadily, which was empty, while trying to avoid public transport during the pandemic.
She told Runner’s World UK : ‘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 said: ‘For around three weeks at the start of lockdown, I was working double shifts, on both the 6 and 10 o’clock news.
‘I wanted to stay off public transport as much as possible, so I started running to work. And that was the weirdest experience, utterly bizarre…I’d run, late morning, down the middle of Piccadilly and there were absolutely no cars.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Sophie talked about how she passing out during her first London Marathon in 2011.
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…’
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.
‘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’.”
Read the full Sophie Raworth interview in the January 2021 issue of Runner’s World UK, on sale from the 3rd December 2020, also available as a digital edition.
Out soon! Read the full Sophie Raworth interview in the January 2021 issue of Runner’s World UK, on sale from the 3rd December 2020, also available as a digital edition