• Break big tasks into manageable chunks - it's less daunting that way.
• Don't set ridiculous goals or start out on the road to achieving them too fast.
• Know what you want to achieve and why.
• Set staging posts along the way: a plan to follow, someone to give you tips and advice, and people to inspire and motivate you.
• When you find yourself struggling, visualise the finishing line.
• Get running! It improves your mental ability.

Raise Your Game: How do you succeed in gaining the confidence to move from a 5km to a 10km to a half marathon? Where does the confidence come from?

Susie Whalley: My best tip is to go and watch a race. Stand at the finish line and see the people come across. You're going to see people on one leg finishing the race, and that is so humbling and inspiring that you'll just think 'I'm ashamed of myself if I can't be doing what they're doing'.

You'll see grandmas, people who have overcome the most awful odds and you'll just see people looking happy. They look like they've had the best day ever. I watched the London marathon, stood on the finish line in tears, wowed by people's efforts, and the next year I ran it myself and I knew that I could do it because every time I was struggling in my training runs I visualised the finish line and how people looked coming across it and it got me around.

RYG: How important is it to have a full plan in your head?

SW: I think it is pretty important just because running can seem like an enormous task. As a complete beginner, you watch Paula Radcliffe run on the television and wonder how do you get from standstill to a marathon. If you haven't planned for that, chances are you're going to struggle to get there.

Just as learning to drive or cook you need to follow a recipe, to run you just need to have staging posts along the way - whether that's a plan to follow, someone to give you tips and advice, good trainers, as in shoes, not personal trainers necessarily... and people to inspire and motivate you.

RYG: Paula Radcliffe says that she counts to a hundred when she's struggling. When the chips are down do you have any tips to keep you going?

Lisa Jackson: I've got little mantras that I do. One of them is that I tell myself over and over again 'I am fit, I am strong, I will run this marathon' and that has really got me out of some awful patches.

Another thing is that I relax different parts of my body, I scan my body and start at my feet and say 'my feet are strong, relaxed and injury free, my ankles feel strong and powerful'. I continue right up my whole body and that distracts me a lot.

Another tip is to really look at the surroundings that you're running in. I love spotting people running in fancy dress because you go and comment on their costume.

I really believe in chatting and turning running into a social thing - it's such an opportunity to talk to strangers. I like to hitch up with someone, ask "Where are they from? Why are they in fancy dress? How many marathons have they done?" and the miles just fly by.

RYG: I'm interested in your walk-run technique. How does it work?

LJ: I'm the one who brought forward the walk-run technique. I was about to run in Paris and I had an injury that prevented me from training.

The night before the marathon I was absolutely rigid with fear because I didn't think that I was going to finish. It was my second marathon. I'd gone all the way to Paris to do it so I didn't want to fail.

Even my husband told me, 'You've got your tense face on'... and then I read the marathon brochure and there was an interview with a Kenyan runner "If you have any doubts about finishing a marathon, build in walk-breaks from the beginning".

Because what most people do is run really quickly for the first half or three quarters of the marathon and then they have no energy at all for the rest. It actually damages your body a lot more than building in the walk-break before you actually need them.

That's why I found the basic walk-run just for the 5km really brilliant as well because it's all manageable bits... and also, psychologically, if you're going to run five and a half hours you go, 'Oh god'. But then if you tell yourself, 'I'm going to run for 15 minutes and then you can walk for five minutes then run for 15 minutes and walk for five. Anyone can run for 15 minutes and that way you get through a marathon really easily.

And now, even though I'm much faster, I still have walk-break right from the word go, which sometimes can be quite embarrassing because people after one mile or two miles see me walking and they're like 'Come on, come on... don't give up yet' and I'm like 'No, no, no. I'm on my walk-break'. If you stick to it rigidly, it is amazing how it breaks down the race into little chunks and you think, 'Gee, that wasn't quite so bad'.

The people on the water tables are just screaming, telling you to carry on and all you want to do is run to show them that they've encouraged you, but you have to control yourself because you've got three minutes left and you've got to keep walking. If anyone finds a marathon daunting, try that first. Elite marathon runners can benefit from doing walk-breaks from the beginning.

RYG: Does the confidence you get from running extend into other areas of your life?

SW: It gives you so much confidence in your own abilities, and when it comes to facing a task, whether that is writing an exam, applying for a job, selling yourself at an interview... you can sit there and think 'I can be proud of myself. I can hold my head up high. If I can run a race, a marathon, even a lap at my local I am worth something and really valuable'.

Also, running does improve your mental ability, your blood flow to the brain, so if you've got any time in the day and you know that you're going to need to perform well, go for a 20 minute run beforehand. It makes perfect sense.

RYG: How important is it to train the brain?

SW: I think if your head's not in the right place you won't get as much enjoyment and value out of running. It is important to feel positive before you start, to boost your self-confidence by using the type of tips that we've been talking about - not setting yourself ridiculous goals, not tearing off too fast.

Really knowing why you want to do it and what you want to achieve, for example, to get better grades in your exams or to feel more confident standing up in front of a big group of people. Instead of thinking 'I'm not going to go red, blush and stammer', think: 'Yes I'm worth listening to'.