Raise Your Game: The Great North Run was a serious challenge, how did you fit in your training alongside a hectic job and a family?

Sophie Raworth: I thought it was going to be much harder than it was actually. If you've got a lot on it's much easier to fit even more in. I was training about four to five times a week. During the week I would wait until my husband came home, put the kids to bed and, because it was summer, I could go out at 7.30 at night and run around the park and do my training there.

When I had to do harder runs we'd leave the children with my parents in the morning and then just go out to Richmond Park and run around there. Its a bit hillier, a bit more like the Great North Run, as I certainly found out. I got hooked on the training and the running. It was great.

RYG: Were you good at sport in school?

SR: No, not at all. I wish I'd done a lot more when I was at school because I had the opportunity. I was very lucky to go to a very good school with amazing sporting facilities. I was ok but I never pushed myself. I probably didn't have the confidence. I was into gymnastics and I was occasionally in a netball team.

I started doing a lot of swimming and then got into diving at the age of 16. I got picked after going training with the British team. For a whole year I was doing amazing amounts of training. I was travelling up to North London, which was a good hour after school every day, to go and train. We had trampoline at the weekends and it was incredible. I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately I only did it for 18 months and then I had to get on with my A-levels and give it up.

RYG: Does discipline come easy to you?

SR: If I love what I'm doing I suppose it's easier. My husband is a big runner and when I first met him he was doing marathons. I thought 'oh I should have a go at this'. I would go off running with him and I absolutely hated it. I thought 'I'd rather be at home with a cup of tea watching television - why am I doing this, I don't want to do exercise, it's painful, it hurts'. It wasn't until I set myself a goal and had a go and told people that I was going to do it, that's when it really kicked in.

The key to being disciplined is to have a goal in front of you. I did the Great North Run in October 2006. Here we are a few months later and I've not done much running since and that's probably because I haven't got a goal. I've got nothing to aim for. I've decided I'm doing the marathon in April so that will make me go running again. Already I'm thinking 'right, this week I've got to start going again'. You need a goal, that makes you disciplined. If you have something to aim for then you can do it.

RYG: What kept you focused during the run?

SR: The thing that kept me focused through all of that was that I had a goal, and I'd told people that I was going to do it. I have to say that my husband was quite a big thing in this. I knew he really wanted me to do it. He's done quite a few himself and he was so hopeful that I was going to do it. I just knew he'd be really proud if I did. He didn't really say very much, but that kept me going.

I just thought 'I've never done anything like this before, it would be lovely to feel that you've achieved something'. It was time to push myself and do it.

I was really nervous on the day. I remember being quite scared about doing it. I just kept saying to myself 'no you've trained, you've done the preparation, you can achieve it, you can do it.'

RYG: Do you remember that feeling when you crossed the line?

SR: Yes vividly, I could hardly walk. I mean I lost a toenail as a result. I remember seeing the finishing line and thinking 'that is such a long, long way away, and you don't seem to be getting any closer. You run 13 miles and you've got 2 to go and you're dying to get to the finishing line and suddenly it's there.

I'd just finished, we had these tags attached to our shoes so they could actually tell how long it's taken you, and I literally, physically couldn't bend down. I grabbed one of the security railings and I was just laughing and holding onto this thing saying 'I cannot move, I cannot do anything else'. Somebody had to come and bend down and get my thing off for me. I limped back to the tent and just collapsed.

RYG: Have you got any advice for young people who'd like to be the next Sophie Raworth?

SR: I suppose my top tip would be don't ever say you want to read the news. The people that walk around saying 'I want to be on television, I want to be famous' don't get there. It doesn't work like that, certainly not in the news business. The way to get on in news is to be a good journalist and that's the bottom line. All presenters now have got journalistic experience. I get put onto News 24 if there's a big story. Nobody tells you what questions to ask. I have to be able to do it myself and know what the story is, and know what the questions are.

If you want to get into journalism, if you want to be on TV or you want to be a reporter the best thing to do is to get a really good grounding. I personally wouldn't advise people to do a media studies course. I think future employers don't look at that as necessarily a good thing. I did languages - go do history, go do politics, go do English. Whatever you're interested in... something you love. Go and get knowledge of the world and you can bring that to your job later on.