Sara Cox reveals Vernon Kay and Paddy McGuinness’ support amid ‘toughest part’ of Children In Need challenge
Bolton-born Sara will take on the equivalent of five marathons in five days for the charity
Sara Cox is set to raie money for BBC’s Children In Need(Image: BBC)
Sara Cox has been getting some advice from some people in the know ahead of her mammoth Children In Need challenge.
She is he latest in a long line of broadcasters to put her body on the line in the name of charity, with the BBC Radio 2 star is preparing to take on a huge physical and mental feat from Monday (November 10).
Bolton-born Sara will take on the equivalent of five marathons in five days, covering 135 miles on foot across four counties, all to raise money for Children In Need.
The beloved TV fundraiser returns with its big appeal night next Friday night (November 14) and Sara’s challenge has been designed to celebrate 40 years of Pudsey Bear, as she ends in the West Yorkshire town BBC graphic designer Joanna Lane named the bandana-wearing bear after.
Carrying a Pudsey Bear backpack, Sara’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge will see her run, jog and walk through the sweeping moorlands and rolling hills of Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, starting from Kielder Forest on November 10 and ending in Pudsey, Leeds, on November 14.
The presenter, who presents Radio 2’s Teatime Show on weekdays, spoke to the Manchester Evening News ahead of the challenge.
Asked if she’s sought advice from Paddy McGuinness, who faced the Ultra Endurance Cycle Challenge last year, and Vernon Kay, who took on his Ultra UltraMarathon in 2023, Sara told us: “Vernon, whenever I see him, just goes, ‘Go on and run up a hill!’. And I’m like, ‘Okay, Vernon, thanks, but I’m just about to go on air.’
“But that’s part of the training as well, it’s just going looking like a mad woman in my local park and just legging it up a hill and then back down again, just confusing all three dogs off the lead like, ‘What the hell’s she doing?’
Sara was unveiled as taking on the challenge back in September(Image: BBC)
“So Vernon, that is true, you do need to do some hill work, so I have been doing that anyway. And. Paddy’s been really good with the other side of it, just saying to block out all the noise, you know.
“I’ve been getting physio treatment and stuff like that, so I think he’s been more like on the mental side of things, of like, you know, people will just make sure people look after you and you just get a minute to yourself to just sort of decompress a little bit at your pit stops.”
She then admitted: “I’m seeing each day in five mile increments. So in my head on the first day, I won’t be thinking 135 miles. I’ll be thinking, five miles, that’s all I’ve got to do. Five miles and then I’ll get some chocolate, or maybe a bit of pork pie.
“That’s one of the things I messaged the other day. So he keeps asking me what I want to eat and I’m like, I don’t know. And I was like, pork pie, pork pies and some Piccalilli. I’m normally quite healthy and don’t eat that sort of stuff, but I’ve been told I can eat anything.”
And that’s not the only food she’s thinking about as she’s hoping to get herself some chips and gravy along the way. “I don’t want to pull the old challenge when I find out I can’t get chips and gravy in the North East,” Sara quipped.
Sara will be taking Pudsey Bear with her on the challenge(Image: BBC)
Asked how she’s feeling, she admitted what she’ll find the most difficult – and it’s maybe not what people would expect.
She said: “I think half of the battle is the mental sort of preparation for it because, believe it or not, even though I’m on the radio showing off every day, I’m just doing that to my listeners and we’re just like a little gang.
“When it comes to it, I’m quite shy and I don’t really like a fuss and so there’s a lot of fuss when you take on a challenge like this and for me, that’s been the toughest bit.
“Like, everybody knowing, everybody looking at me… It’s a bit like, a good analogy, when you’re pregnant, people look at you with like a mixture of excitement and and and sympathy because you’re about to go through something quite painful, even though it’ll be a joyous and beautiful thing.
“Also, when you’re pregnant, every woman who’s pregnant just thinks, ‘I’ve got to get this baby out of me at some point’. You can’t like back out.
“You can be like, ‘Nah, I’m all right. I’m not going to give birth. I’m just going to keep the baby there’. And that’s a bit what it feels like.
“No, I can’t back out… I’ve just got to get as mentally and physically prepared as I can. And physically, I think I’m in good shape.”
She added: “Mentally, as I get stronger physically, I am starting to believe in myself a bit more. Although the trainers have told me there’s something called marathon mania. You go, ‘I can’t do it, I cant do it’. You try to pull out, apparently. So I’m braced for that.”
But back to support, and Sara has got some from an unlikely source – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. “He’s my best friend now,” Sara said. “Not kept in touch, funnily enough, I didn’t get his digits.
“But Dwayne was very lovely. He said, ‘Keep going!’ I said, ‘any advice?’ and he went, ‘Yeah, you’ve just got to keep going because you think, how bad will I feel if I don’t keep going?’Thanks, Dwayne for that insight.”
She added: “He was lovely actually. He seemed quite impressed by it and quite overawed by it. So I was like, you know, it must be a decent challenge if The Rock thinks it’s quite scary. I did try and get him to join, come along and join in. He was having none of it. Said he was busy… whatever!”
