Imagine you are a specialist running company and you get the opportunity to become a corporate partner with one of the largest running events in the country.

You’d be a fool to turn that opportunity down, wouldn’t you?

Then, imagine that after signing up you are warned that your new partner is not who they appear to be, not what they claim. You are warned of serious ethical and honesty issues, that the organisation behind the event lacks integrity.

What would you do then?

Runners Need wrote back to the person who had warned them stating that they carefully consider who they associate their brand with, especially when it comes to partnerships. They undertook to review the information they had been given and take any action they felt appropriate to ensure their business, “remains aligned to its core values.”

Only they didn’t. It was lip service. No meaningful review took place. 

How do we know this? Because the individual writing to them was Race for Life creator Jim Cowan, and he had advised them that he had evidence to support everything he said about Cancer Research UK should they wish to see it.

But they didn’t ask to see any of it. Their ‘review’ did not include looking at evidence. Seriously?

What does that tell you about those ‘core values’ they claimed to be so keen to remain aligned with?

And, next time you want fair, impartial advice on a pair of running shoes or other kit, what does it tell you about any advice you might receive from Runners Need?

Are they selling you the right pair of shoes for you and your particular running style? Or are they only claiming to do that, while actually selling you the pair which serves their own self-interest most?

Based on their opting to continue their partnership with the Race for Life, based on their deliberately ignoring evidence offered as part of their ‘review’, which do you believe?

Runners Need’s deliberate ignoring of evidence in pursuit of corporate greed tells everything about the ‘core values’ to which they referred. Core values devoid of morals, of honesty, of integrity. Core vales based only in serving self.

In the Race 4 Truth, Cancer Research UK and Runners Need are lagging behind.