Bristol mum-of-two Mel Bound, who started a Facebook page aimed at finding other local mums to run with, has turned it into a fully-fledged business after the online community became a runaway success.
Mel, pictured, first created the page ‘This Mum Runs’ in September 2014 to reach out to other parents struggling to find the time and confidence to get into fitness after having children. 
Within days, hundreds of mums had joined up and there are now more than 1,300 members in Bristol alone. This Mum Runs has also recently launched in Bath with more groups planned in Somerset and Devon.
A key reason the concept has gained popularity is that the timing of traditional running groups do not work for many mums as sessions often take place at children’s bedtime.
In fact, Mel says mums cite lack of time in general as being the greatest barrier to participation.
A This Mum Runs survey of 225 Bristol mums found that 70% felt they were too busy to get out and run even though they wanted to, while four in 10 struggled with juggling childcare and time to exercise.
Mel has secured funding from Run England – an official England Athletics project which aims to get the nation up and running – and Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Council to make the leap from hobby to business.
This enabled her to scale quickly and build a team of 19 coaches, which will grow to more than 50 coaches this spring. She has also has left her job as global account director with an international brand engagement agency to concentrate on the new business full time.
This Mum Runs also secured a place in the award-winning business start-up accelerator programme Entrepreneurial Spark, sponsored by RBS and KPMG, which provided her with the tools, training and support needed to create strong framework for fast growth.
Mel said: “I have been blown away by the response to This Mum Runs. The community continues to grow every day and there are so many amazing stories of personal achievement and new friendships that have developed.
“Earlier last year the group became involved with the Bristol Girls Can campaign, part of Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’, that was all about taking the ‘gym bunny’ perception out of fitness and engaging with ‘real’ women.
“It was around about then that things started to click and I realised there was genuine enthusiasm for grassroots organisations to help people – and women in particular – so they could take a bit more control of their own fitness. Running is particularly good because all you need is a pair of trainers and a sports bra and you’re off.”
The vision for the newly-formed business is to remove the many barriers for women to start running and inspire and encourage them to get their trainers on and head out the door. This is done through a combination of free social runs and paid-for programmes and coaching, including a ‘Couch to 5K’ for beginners.
Within weeks of the group going live, Mel – who has a BA Hons in Sport and Exercise Science and is a qualified personal trainer – found herself organising runs in various locations across Bristol and leading couch-to-5K courses.
As popularity for these increased, the idea of creating a more established, organised framework for the community to take part in started to make sense.
She said: “I can totally relate to the lack of time issue as I was working in a full-on, full-time job with a lot of travel and was away from my family at the same time as facilitating a lot of the activity of This Mum Runs. I realised something had to give – so I now focus on This Mum Runs full time.
“Timing in more ways than one is everything with This Mum Runs and I think it’s come at a time when people are really engaging with the wider agenda about women’s health and fitness and the need to improve it across the board.
“Mums tend to put their own needs last and statistics show women still do significantly less exercise than men, clearly this is something that needs to change for everyone’s benefit.”
Mel thinks that the concept also goes beyond running. She said: “The whole community, while based around running, is also one that creates headspace and time for women to put the worries of the day to one side.
“It also creates friendships and encourages a freedom and confidence that helps people to believe they can achieve what they want – all they need to do is take that first step.”
