I CAN’T remember a time when I wasn’t sporty. I can still picture the little purple bike I learned to ride on and literally every single break and lunch-time at primary school, I’d be running about the playground like a wild child playing tig or manhunt or any other game that involved racing around having fun.

When I was at school, sports day was a very serious affair – I was so competitive and I always really, really wanted to win. I think I’ve always had the competitiveness in me; that goes hand-in-hand with playing a lot of sport and I had a lot of opportunities to play different sports when I was at school, which I really enjoyed.

At school I was a member of the athletics club and so did the primary school cross-country championships and the different races around the country – we’d go to Grangemouth and Kirkcaldy and places like that for races and although it was just a mile, that feels pretty far when you’re so young and you’re wading through mud. I was a member of Giffnock North Athletics Club too – I was a sprinter and I spent a lot of time at the track.

By the time I reached high school, I was a member of pretty much every school sports club and I basically lived in the PE department. Every Thursday, I’d go to the dancing club at school, then run home and go straight to athletics training – I was literally non-stop. I’m sadly not like that anymore though, working life has a bad habit of getting in the way of time to exercise which makes me feel so lazy sometimes. When I was at university, I did a little bit of running and netball but I was also really up for trying different things.

So, I did a bit of muay thai boxing for a few months – honestly, I did – which was really fun. After I left uni, I joined Clyde Rowing Club at Glasgow Green. For about a year and half, I trained pretty seriously– I was training four or five times a week so I spent loads of time on the river.

I had won Miss Scotland by that point but I wasn’t training because of my job or because I felt like I needed to stay in shape – I was purely doing sport because I loved doing sport and being fit and active definitely makes you feel good about your body. In fact, rowing probably wasn’t all that good for my modelling because I developed muscles in my back that I didn’t even know I had.

When I was Miss Scotland, I climbed Kilimanjaro and that was great, it was an amazing experience. Actually, it wasn’t quite as challenging as I’d expected it to be because we really took our time.

The last day was really challenging though – it was really, really steep so you’re exhausted and then the altitude starts to really kick in. So that was tough, but I’m so glad I did it.

I think when you’ve always done sport, you have a mindset that you’re up for taking on pretty much any challenge and you’re always looking to do the best you can do, so that’s stood me in really good stead for life in general and with my job nowadays – I’m always the first one to put my hand up when any new challenge is suggested.

The London Marathon, which I did in 2012, is the single hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m not a natural distance runner and by the time I’d been asked to run it, I really didn’t have enough time to properly train so it was really tough, and I’m not exaggerating when I say I hated almost every mile and second of it. It is safe to say, after that experience, I don’t think I’ll be doing another marathon.

What is nice is being able to say you’ve done it, and completed the course, and it’s fantastic to have ticked that off my list. But never, ever again!

One of the best things about my job presenting Live at Five on STV2 is that I get the opportunity to try so many different sports. I’ve been out rowing again on the Clyde and I was rowing fairly recently with a woman called Elaine Hopley, who crossed the Atlantic solo. She was amazing and so to row with her on Loch Lomond was just a fantastic. opportunity and experience and it puts the Clyde in perspective.

The other week, I was curling with Eve Muirhead, I’ve done some ice climbing and I like to get involved with the big 10K races that often take place throughout the city. Because you have spectators, supporting the runners, and often have groups running together, they really have an atmosphere you just can’t beat.

Some of the things I get asked to do are a bit more on the ridiculous side though – a few weeks ago, I did a bounce-a-thon, where my co-presenter, David Farrell, and I were on a trampoline for about 12 hours, although we were allowed breaks, thankfully. I’ve never been a great watcher of sport – I’ve always preferred doing sport but having said that, I do love watching athletics and especially the big multi-sport events.

I’d love to see a greater spread of sports on television and we’ve covered quite a few different sports on the show, like curling and badminton, which I think is great because in Scotland, we’re often really guilty of only covering football and rugby. And I’d love to see more women’s sport on telly – that would be a brilliant step forward.