Seven years ago I was training for a marathon, my first, I was dedicated and both nervous and excited to take part in the event. Training started well, then it started to get harder, I was struggling and started to find running harder than when I first started… it turned out I was pregnant and my hormones were against me running. It also turned out I would be over 7 months pregnant by the date of the race and if I was finding things hard now I was advised it wasn’t wise to push on through.
I deferred my race place for the following year in the naive hope that I would be race ready by then. Skip forward to the birth of my first son, I couldn’t wait to get back started, I felt great (well maybe not great, lack of sleep and the constant demands from a tiny human definitely stopped that), but I truly thought I was in good shape and would have no trouble. I was advisor to leave running until 5-6 months by my pre and postnatal Pilates instructor and I amazingly listened.
The came the day of that first run, I did not go well, I didn’t even get half a kilometre and I was (uncontrollably) wet myself. I was mortified. I tried a few more times (those times on the treadmill in the safely of my own home) and the same happened. I sort help with a female physio who confirmed I had a minor prolapse and a hypertonic pelvic floor. I was sent away with homework to complete. I remember thinking I was ready a few months on a entering a 10k race only to get less than 1km in and leaking, it was mortifying, I was there on my own and have to drive the hour home in tears. I thought I’d never run again.
I left things for some time, doing my exercises but not really running at all and then after the birth of my second son I was seen and informed I had a second prolapse. Both were minor and I was luck in the fact that they didn’t get in the way of my every day life in general, it was always just exercise, which for me was my everyday life. I realised Kegels alone were not getting me anywhere. I ended up leaving my job as a personal assistant and retraining as a personal trainer specialising in pre and postnatal and body recovery.
I knew I not only wanted to recover my body to the best of my ability I wanted to help others going
through the same things and so Bee MumFit was born. It’s been a long journey for me, with two small children and running my own business, starting it from scratch, has left only small amounts of time for my own recovery. However, after many set backs from coughs and colds (a massive pelvic floor aggregator) and with the support of my friends, family and clients on Sunday 28 th January 2024 I ran and completed the Chepstow 10k, not only beating my post babies PB by 6 minutes but also not a drop leaked!
I know this might feel like over sharing for some, but it is so important for others to know its not OK
to be leaking when you run (or doing any other activity or day to day task), and it is for the majority
something that can be healed, with hard work and dedication (it’s life long care) you really can start
going back to the things you love.
