Hello! What have you been up to recently? I’m doing a lot at the moment around health and wellbeing, which involves going into companies, looking at their wellbeing structure and helping them to adjust it to get the best from their staff. I’m also supporting Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life and am trying to encourage as many women as possible to sign up to one of their local events. All that along with trying to be a mum to three boys and fitting in exercise too!
Where is your favourite place to run – and why? My favourite place to run has to be at the top of the South Downs – it’s beautiful there when it’s sunny. The peace and quiet that you can get there gives you great thinking time while you’re running.
Do you remember your first race? Yes, I really do – it was sports day in my primary school and it was an obstacle course race. We had to do things like going through a hoop, walking along with a bean bag and those type of things.
How did you fare? I did really well – I remember winning by miles and winning a little orange ball. I must have been about five or six.
What’s your greatest running achievement? Becoming Olympic champion in 1992 – it’s a dream that I’d had since I was 14. It’s lovely to work so hard for something and have it come true.
When someone asks for a training tip, what do you tell them? The best tip I can give someone is for them to set a realistic goal: it really helps if you have something you want to achieve, whether it’s taking part in a 5k for Race for Life or another challenge. Having a goal gives you a real reason to get out of the door in the morning, get on with your training and get fit.
Do you like a running gadget? At the moment I’m a bit of a Garmin girl. My husband bought me one for Valentine’s Day and it’s great. It tells me how many miles I’ve run and how fast I’m going so it’s a bit of a love/hate relationship. Some days it’s really depressing when you’re not going as fast as you’d hoped but other days, when you’ve run a long distance, you can see how far you’ve run and feel really impressed with yourself.
Do you run to music? What do you listen to? I do – especially on a longer run, but I don’t have particular tracks or type of music that I like to listen to. I usually have my music on shuffle and there’s a real mixture of different times of music – from pop to current chart music and workout tracks. I really like the variety of not knowing which song is coming up next.
What’s your favourite post-race indulgence? I’d have to say my favourite post-race indulgence would be a glass of wine and a rich, sticky dessert. Sticky toffee pudding or treacle tart are my favourites!
What is the worst thing about running? I think the worst thing about running is those first 10-15 minutes when you’re just getting started and you can feel all those aches and pains, especially when we get older. I don’t say I love running every day by any means. Sometimes I do hate getting into it but I know I’ll feel great afterwards when I’ve completed the challenge I’ve set myself.
And the best? Definitely that feeling you get afterwards when you’ve completed your run – it’s a sense of achievement, but also just the buzz of feeling really healthy, energised and relaxed.
What do you eat on the morning of a race? On the morning of a race I would most likely eat porridge with honey and a banana.
What’s the furthest distance you’ve ever run? I did a marathon – it was my one and only. I think my time was 3 hours 47 minutes and I was so proud to have reached my goal of under four hours. I trained and ran with a friend of mine and it all went to plan, we had a really good time. However, we knew that we’d never be able to run any faster so we retired after one attempt!
Do you ever run barefoot? The only time I’ve run barefoot is on a soft beach, which is one of my favourite things. But I’ve never tried barefoot-style shoes.
Mo Farah or Usain Bolt? I’d choose Mo Farah every time – because it’s a longer race, I find there’s a lot more excitement behind it and it’s always a good competitive race.
Who is the greatest runner ever? Wow – what a hard question! Personally, because of my event, I’d say Ed Moses for 400m hurdles – he won over a hundred races in a row!
Sally Gunnell is supporting Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life. Run, walk, dance, enter raceforlife.org
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