Jo Whiley: Voicing Couch To 5k is one of the best things I’ve done

Jo Whiley has said being the Couch To 5k voice is “one of the best things I’ve ever done”, as she encouraged people to take up running from the start of a half-marathon.

Speaking on the start line of the London Landmarks half-marathon on Sunday, Whiley, 60, said she was running the race to encourage people to move their body even if they doubt their abilities.

The BBC Radio 2 DJ told the Press Association: “Being the Couch To 5K voice is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. That’s why I’ve shown up here today, because I want to encourage people to say that it doesn’t matter whether you can’t run really far or very fast, you can run, you can keep moving.”

Couch To 5k is a nine-week, free, beginner-friendly running plan offered by BBC Sport and the Government.

Whiley added: “When I’m on the radio and I’m playing records and people are in the kitchen, it’s like I’m in the kitchen with them, or wherever, where they’re on a run. I’m really happy to have that place in people’s lives.”

Alongside Whiley, BBC presenter Sophie Raworth ran the half as part of training for the London Marathon later this month.

Raworth, 57, said running allows her to have her own “space and time” and it has “really surprised” her how it is now a large part of her identity.

She told PA: “I love the moment when I go off on my own, in my own head, I never listen to anything, I’m not talking to people, it is my own space and time. In this day and age, it’s quite hard to find that.”

The presenter has completed some gruelling races, including a 150-mile desert ultramarathon in 2018.

On running, she said: “I discovered it really late in life. I was 42 when I ran my first marathon but it has really surprised me that it is so much of my identity now.”

For Raworth, eating salted pretzels the day before a marathon “every year” is her top fuelling strategy.

She said: “I snack on them every Saturday before a marathon, just because an Olympian told me once to do that, and I now feel that if I don’t, I may not run very well.”