If I had to die on any hill, it would be voting with your dollar is important!

I’m not here to judge you for buying fast fashion from Kmart or cheap Christmas decorations from the Reject Shop, you do you, but it’s vitally important that you understand that by purchasing a product you are supporting and condoning the behaviours and conduct of that company, product or service.

You are telling them that it’s ok. That whatever dodgy shit they have done won’t affect their bottom line.

I can hear people in the background saying, one person doesn’t matter, and you’re right, one person on their own doesn’t matter, but thousands or millions of people, all making the same decision to not support a particular company or person, that does.

I appreciate that this is often a hard decision, especially in the current cost of living crisis that is sweeping Australia. But let’s talk about discretionary spending.

Are the companies you are supporting in line with your personal values?

Are their raw materials ethically sourced?

Are they staff treated well? Paid well?

Did you even think about it before you bought it or did you just think it was cute or met the brief for what you were looking for?

I have a bit of a list of companies/industries that I just won’t support

• Animal products- just nope, for animal reasons, for environmental reasons, for my personal heath reasons
• Nike- dodgy sweat shops, dodgy treating of elite athletes, cheating, sexism, all of the above
• Harvey Norman- because their owner was an arse during the pandemic

And now I’m adding UTMB to that list.

It’s a sad day. I’ve been trying so hard to give them the benefit of the doubt, that they are trying to improve, but as of today, and the treatment of Corrine Malcom, I’m out.

I can’t support this and won’t be going further.

They have just dropped the ball so many times. No one is perfect and nobody is expecting them to be, but it’s the arrogance of never apologising, just issuing a PR statement probably written by ChatGPT that misses the mark and continuing on that pisses me off.

David and Megan Roche said it well on their podcast after the Whistler debacle, that a rising tide lifts all boats, until one is a giant freighter storming over the little boats and sinking them.

My opinions are nothing new and revolutionary here and I hope one day to run the loop around Mont Blanc but I can’t see it being a part of the UTMB. I just can’t see them sorting their shit out.

Unfortunately I still have two “by UTMB” races to go. Ultra Trail Kosciusko in less than a week and Tarawera in February.

I have a few reasons to still attend and run these races.

The first is financial, I’ve already paid the entry, the accomodation and the flights, and I don’t think “the organisers are arseholes” will fly with my travel insurance company as to why I am no longer participating.

The race entry has already been purchased, the damage is done.

The second is the pounamu and what it represents. For me, that pounamu represents the reason I fell in love with trail running. It’s the heart of what Paul Charteris created with Tarawera (before he sold it to Ironman). It’s what I was chasing when I started this blog back in 2018. I still haven’t achieved it.

2024 will be my last go at it and my farewell to Tarawera.

If you had told me in 2017 when I first ran Tarawera and experienced everything that it was that I would be saying “never again” to this race, I wouldn’t have believed you.

But here we are.

One more go.

Will I still follow the races? Yeah probably, I love the sport and UTMB is still attracting the best in the world. I hope some of the elites will choose other races, like Devon Yanko and Patty OLeary have already committed to do.

But ultra trail running is still a participation sport, not a spectator sport. They make their money from people showing up and constantly doing their races trying to get in with all the qualifications stones. They don’t make their money from the live stream or the elites showing up.

We don’t have endless money to throw around, so choose wisely.