Meet Leanne Davies, founder of Run Mummy Run
This is me: Leanne, or mummy to some. No one special; I just hold a love of running and all the good it brings. I ran a lot before becoming a mum, did the odd half-marathon and a full one in 2008. I tried to keep the same momentum, but it was definitely harder the more children I had.
After my second baby, I was struggling to keep to fixed commitments or structured running club times, and could never plan too far ahead with running friends – no week was ever the same. I would nearly always find myself cancelling plans or running alone, and on dark winter nights this wasn’t fun. I also missed chatting to other runners about my running highs and lows, and the support I could get from that. In December 2012, after talking with one of my running buddies (Wendy) about my frustrations, I decided it was time to find a solution.
So what did I need? A network of likeminded women who loved running and wanted to talk about it. On my return home from our run, I sat in my kitchen, had a coffee and set up a small Facebook Group of three women.
The idea definitely proved to be the answer I was looking for. Not only did it bring me the motivation and encouragement I needed to get out there and run, I have also been lucky enough to meet some truly inspirational women who I enjoy sharing my love of running with.
Over the months that followed, our small community steadily grew in popularity with members joining from all over the UK. To date, we have proudly reached a collective community of over 190,000 members across all of our channels. We have a number of communities to serve all active women, which you can see here.
Since our inception, we have gone on to launch our online clothing shop, host motivational running weekends, and win Gold in the online category for two consecutive years at The Running Awards. We also won Women’s Running magazine’s award for ‘Influencer of the Year 2017’.
In January 2018, we published our first book selling in all good book shops nationwide, called Run Mummy Run, Inspiring Women to be Fit, Healthy and Happy, and in 2019 I was honoured to be named on the Lucozade Sports Movers List for my dedication in getting people moving.
In 2020 I was delighted to welcome Becs Richardson onboard as Co-Owner of Run Mummy Run to support the business, community and teams, and to help sustain our growth. Run Mummy Run is no longer just me and my laptop – over the years we have built a team who support the shop, our marketing and all our communities. You can meet the core team here.
In 2021 we launched our first podcast ‘Running Conversations. Real-Life Stories From Women Who Run’, which you can listen to here. We also launched our first online affiliated running club in association with our partner ASICS, and we’re excited to be entering our second year of this in 2022.
We have so many more exciting projects on the way for our members and cannot wait to share them with you!
Almost 10 years on I can’t quite believe how far we’ve come from a little Facebook group of three women and what an amazing experience it’s been! I’m so excited for the next decade and hope you will continue the journey with us.
Leanne x
Last updated April 2022
Follow my personal life and running journey on Instagram @_leanne_davies_
Follow the official Run Mummy Run account on Instagram @runmummyrun
