AD - this post is in collaboration with Runderwear.

If you’d told me a decade ago that I’d go on to run multiple marathons, an ultra and spend my days studying running I would’ve laughed at you.

A few years later, and a couple of years in to a stressful grad job, I started to get the feeling I needed something in my life that wasn’t work. Actually I needed something in my life that wasn’t stressful. My 20s were dominated by an oppressive relationship that left me constantly on edge. Whether I was at work or at home I was stressed, I had no breathing room. Of course I didn’t really realise this at the time, I just knew I there was a nagging thought in the back of my mind that I needed a hobby…I now know I needed something I could do something for myself as an escape and a voice in the back of my mind kept telling me I needed to run.

I am not a ‘natural runner’, I was terrible at school sports (although loved outdoor pursuits like hiking and climbing) and pretty much packed in all physical activity during university confident that I just wasn’t sporty, so it’s fair to say that the idea of taking up running as a hobby wasn’t all that appealing. I tried every other hobby I could think of but nothing stuck and that voice in the back of my mind telling me I needed to run…so one day I decided I’d give it a go (albeit, against my better judgement).

Project Running Bra

When I start a project I like to do my research, and my tentative internet searches told me that if I was going to give running a shot I needed to make sure I was comfortable and that a decent sports bra was an essential. I don’t know what happened but the idea of owning a sports bra became really symbolic. Good running bras aren’t cheap, if I was going to drop close to 40 on one I had better commit and give running a good shot.

It sounds crazy, but one of my strongest memories around taking up running was going to buy a sports bra. I’d been building up to it all day, making sure I left on time and psyching myself up before going into the store, if I bought this bra I was committed to becoming a runner. I remember standing for ages looking at all the different bras on offer, googling which one was best and struggling to try them on in the tiny changing room, feeling frustrated about the lack of sizes available and how ugly the bras in my size were. An hour later, and considerably poorer, I walked out with my first running bra.

That bra saw me through hundreds of miles. It got me through Couch to 5k, my first 10k race and the second 10k race I signed up for the night after I ran my first. I kept hold of that thing until it was all grey and ratty and even now I feel a little sentimental thinking about it, it was the bra that made me a runner.

Running With Breasts

That first bra didn’t just ignite a love of running, it also started a fascination with the relationship between running and our breasts.

According to Brown et al (2013) around one third of female runners experience at least occasional breast pain and the bigger a woman’s cup size the more likely they are to experience pain. A quarter of women surveyed by Brown et al reported that pain had caused them to miss one or more runs, around 20% said they did shorter runs due to pain and 30% reported reducing the intensity of their runs. 91% of the women surveyed said that they wore a sports bra while running, suggesting that the bras available at the time (and this research is 8 years old) just weren’t cutting it when it came to supporting runners.

While discomfort can kill your motivation, a poorly fitting bra can have a permanent effect on your breasts. Breast tissue can be really heavy and according to Andrea Cheville, M.D. (2017) ‘the body doesn’t support them very well’, in fact there’s nothing more than your skin and a few ligaments (Cooper’s Ligament) to keep them stable. Because they’re not connected to any muscles breasts move individually to the rest of the body, there’s a certain amount of built in tolderance for this, but if your boobs moves 60% or more then you could be causing irreversible damage and the skin and ligaments won’t return to their original shape (Scurr, 2020).

If you’re not comfortable when you’re running - whether that’s because your boobs hurt, are moving more than you’d like or your bra is uncomfortable - you’re not going to enjoy running. When you don’t enjoy something you’re going to avoid doing it. It’s a simple equation, but for lots of women it means they’ll be missing out on a sport that they used to love.

Finding The Right Bra

I think a good bra is as important as a good pair of trainers when you’re a runner. If you’re comfortable and supported you can focus on what’s really important and get more out of your runs.

This post was in collaboration with Runderwear who gifted me products as part of my role as an ambassador. All opinions are my own.