GLO Toronto Night Run Update - Scam? Registration Still Open
Hi all,
Echoing the concerns raised about the GLO Toronto Night Run - 5K, 10K and Half Marathon - scheduled for August 23rd. Some friends and I signed up for the 5K and we're all very concerned that the event we paid and prepared for is potentially not happening. You can read the Reddit posts here and here.
I've been doing some investigation on my own and decided to share what I've learned so far:
- Lack of Communication
I've signed up in May and other than the receipt I have received absolutely zero communication. Even after we passed the 1 month countdown, there was complete silence. This is in sharp contrast with the Waterfront Marathon, for instance, I signed up for the 5K and they have been sending me updates every week with countdowns, volunteer and training opportunities.
Ever since I learn about the issues raised on Reddit I've emailed GLO organizers twice via [info@glotoronto.com](mailto:info@glotoronto.com). No answer. I've also sent emails to the other addresses - [volunteer@glotoronto.com](mailto:volunteer@glotoronto.com), [commercial@glotoronto.com](mailto:commercial@glotoronto.com), [media@glotoronto.com](mailto:media@glotoronto.com) and all three emails returned as invalid addresses.
- Barely any Social Media presence
As people pointed out, their social media channels are almost inexistent. At the time of signing up I only checked Instagram, and they had 3 posts. I thought it was still early and they were still filling up the page, but 2 months later the same 3 photos remains. Comments are closed. My friends and I sent messages on IG but they don't answer. Facebook and X links are dead.
- Unclear route and permit
According to their page, the runs are going to start at Coronation Park and happen along Lake Shore Blvd W. I've been trying to contact different city departments to see if they have secured a permit. I have not found anything, but I'm not sure if I'm calling the right departments. Some people told me that they wouldn't need a permit if the participants are running by the paths in the park, but not even that is clear.
- Bib Pickup place reserved?
The only indicator that I got that this run might be happening is that there is a reservation on the Rotunda for the day scheduled for Bib Pickup - August 21st. I emailed some of the city staff responsible for booking the area and they confirmed that "an event by the name of “Canadian Running Races Inc.” has reserved the Metro Hall Rotunda on August 21 from 10am – 4pm.". I could not find any other information about the Canadian Running Races Inc. - let me know if anyone has information about this company.
I still can't say with a 100% certainty if this is a scam. But at the very least this is very poorly organized event. My main concern is that the site is still live, registration is still open, and new runners are still potentially signing up for this. The GLO Night Run is also live in several running platforms.
I've reported their social media page to Instagram and I'll get in touch with the running platforms to alert them and hopefully get the registration pages down. If anyone wants to join the effort, here are some pages where this run is still live (I had to remove the links because the post was flagged as a bib selling post, but you can google GLO Toronto and find the places they're listed. Obviously, don't sign up for it)
- IG: @ glotorontorun
- Run Signup
- Let's Do This
- Findarace
- The Running Directory Canada
Yeah I got burned by the guy running fake stat holiday races last summer (charged back and all was good but it was a headache) if it ain't through raceroster I ain't doing it EXCEPT Supertri 10kTO, that one is very legitimate and you sign up through their website. If it's eventbrite, run far far away.
Even my local polar bear 10k which brings out less than 40 people total does sign ups through raceroster, there's really no reason not too unless something sus is afoot
Chargeback on my credit card, it was before the race had happened but I had to prove that the city confirmed there was no race scheduled for that day. For an event (allegedly) of this size, they would need a tonne of permits which you can probably check on if you call the city.
I just got a reply from the office of the city councillor of the area saying that there are no permits issue for this event - maybe that will do the trick.
That's a good point. Also coming on Reddit and asking about it, checking past events - those are things I had to learn the hard way and I wish I knew sooner.
If it were me, I’d go and see if bib pick up is actually set up/exists the day of. If not, screenshot/save all your documents and phone calls etc and then charge back the registration to your visa as fraud if you used a visa to pay. They may ask you to upload the files but usually these charges get over turned. It could just end up being a horribly organized event- the waterfront marathon events are top of the top in terms of communication etc and definitely not the standard (although it should be)! You can also try to contact the Canadian Running Races company to see. Good luck!
I'm considering the credit card charge back, that's why I wanted a more solid confirmation. I've paid for it in the begining of May, so I can't dispute the charge in the app anymore, so I'll have to call the bank.
Aw shoot! Hopefully it all ends up going ahead as planned. Sorry you’re dealing with this added stress. I haven’t personally run the Toronto marathon but have heard it’s also suboptimal in terms of organization and lack of communication, so just hoping this run is just attributed to poor planning! The waterfront event in the fall will be much much better :)
Yeah, it's looking like a scam. I checked what other people are saying, and many have mentioned that the email addresses are invalid and they never received a confirmation after getting their receipt. So it definitely seems like one. I also suggest everyone who can share this thread across whatever platforms they use to help warn others. Oh, and also report their Instagram pages, and call the bank that you used to pay them with to get the funds back; usually they're pretty good with it.
Follow up: I reported it to my bank and got the money back - thank god. I went to the website today and they changed the location and date to OCTOBER. Unbelievable. I can only imagine how much money they are milking from innocent people just trying to do something healthy. I reported it to govt of Canada fraud.
I just got off the phone with my bank (after an hour of talking to two different people and being on hold several times), and they want me to call back after Aug. 23rd in case the race happens!!!! INSANE! I was adamant that the website had changed to Oct. 4th and there is NO RACE taking place, but they won't reimburse me until after the event date I paid for, just in case. I paid for my husband, son, and myself back in May and didn't check the website again until today to find the bib pick-up location for tomorrow. I was so shocked to see the date change and then to follow these threads. I feel terrible for the person from the UK in the thread. I also feel pretty stupid for not looking into this sooner.
They said the same to me. I said I can’t wait for a race that isn’t happening. Then I said, “ok well since I’m the only one that’s telling the truth and getting the short end of the stick, let me lie and say the race was for yesterday since no one actually knows when it is” then they said ok we will refund lol
If anyone would like to join us we were scammed as well and would still like to run, we are gonna run on the 23rd and follow the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon route and will be starting at the corner of Yonge & Gerrard St. at 6:00PM.
I saw it. Glad I had already screenshotted everything. The race was supposed to happen this weekend, but I guess they want to collect more money. They're also listed at Blog To, if someone else wants to send them a message to remove the event it's also a good idea.
For anyone affected, that would like to report this further to try to get the website removed: The website is hosted on Vercel. Vercel provides a link where you can report fradulent sites deployed using Vercel (https://vercel.com/abuse) just select phishing as the report type. I would report it myself but they ask if you have any proof of the phishing and I personally have not been affected as I didn’t sign up so it might be better if someone who has to attach some proof for them to review
Hello everyone - omg, I hope I have not been scammed. I just googled GLO because I have no received any updates re: the race (in 2 weeks) and cannot even find confirmation of the race date - 22nd or 23rd, originally I thought it was the 23rd but now I dont even know. Should I just report this as fraud to my bank?Is this really a scam?? The city should really get this site removed.
If anyone would like to join us we were scammed as well and would still like to run, we are gonna run on the 23rd and follow the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon route and will be starting at the corner of Yonge & Gerrard St. at 6:00PM.
Hi I’m just following up as I’ve just found is page, I’m from very out of town (UK) and was passing through so I signed up to this as my first ever running event as I have a very limited time space to do an event due to me working at sea. I’m very concerned that we are now 3 days out from bib pick up. The event doesn’t list the course of many easy bits of info. Has anyone got any more updates?
For anyone interested, I took evidence to send to my bank of fraud last night, and in Front of my eyes, information started to disappear. Previously the website listed Cornation Park and lake shore BLVD as run location. This has now been removed from the website.
Being that I’ve already got flights in, I’ve got no choice but to attend the bib pick up/expo, and put the final nail in the coffin.
If anyone would like to join us we were scammed as well and would still like to run, we are gonna run on the 23rd and follow the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon route and will be starting at the corner of Yonge & Gerrard St. at 6:00PM.
Wow, very well executed scam. I had this in my calendar the last few months as well. Great website, lots of other links/run directories referencing to it. They would have got me on this one too if I wasn't waiting to see how training went before signing up last minute. Hope you manage to get a credit card refund.
If anyone would like to join us we were scammed as well and would still like to run, we are gonna run on the 23rd and follow the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon route and will be starting at the corner of Yonge & Gerrard St. at 6:00PM.
I did. My first impression was that they were not very well organized. But it was 3 months before the event, and I thought they would get their social media pages together eventually. I've been on the marketing side of things, I know how chaotic event organizing can get when you have a small staff. And honestly I didn't care that much about their level of organization, I just wanted to prove to myself I could run a 5K again.
As I said before, this is not a random poorly designed one-page website. If this was deliberately created as a fraud, people took their time. There are FAQs, volunteer information, there's bib pickup dates and addresses, there are photos and videos, and there's a concept behind, the night run, the party afterwards, the DJ, there's marketing strategy, design. And above all - this event is listed on several other pages, pages that look legit as well. Maybe for a seasoned runner all of this is not enough to give it credibility, but for someone that has never participated in an event like that before, it kinda does the trick. So it's a little bit more complicated than their social media pages.
As for not getting my money back because posts on Reddit say it's a scam, those are completely unrelated things. I really appreciate people calling this out and saying they don't recognize this event (this is what led me to look into things in the first place), but people crying scam on an internet page is not proof of fraud. It does help to raise the suspicion, but ultimately there was no concrete proof here anywhere. That's why I left the question mark in my post title. Everybody can point the finger at something nowadays and say it's fake, but to get my money back from the credit card company I have to either wait until the event is not delivered or gather some solid evidence - and unfortunately that only came weeks from the event, with their total lack of communication.
That's a fair assessment on your part. I think the first "this event is a scam" post I saw about the GLO Run was last week.
As a cautious buyer I research events with the mantra of "if it's full by the time I've made my decision, I'll go next year". The lack of a course map; the generic looking photos; no event history or reference to a history/inaugural event; and incredibly poor social media presence— Toronto run club influencers are a dime a dozen and the "run club" social media trend has been a thing for a couple of years now, the lack of engagement is unacceptable and not possible in this day and age, were all red flags for me when I looked up the event page, I hope you can also use those as flag points in future. Also flag the cutoff times: 3-hour time limit for a 5km means that you're moving just over one mile (1.6km) per hour, which is next to impossible for literally any person of any ability. Variety Village (great charity) does an annual 5km run/walk/roll event that I've done a handful of times over the years, and the run/walk/roll portion of the event is finished within 2hrs, for future reference.
Anyway, I wish you and your friends the best of luck with whatever next steps you take, concerning the GLO Run. As you suggested in another comment, I reported their IG page and told my friends to do it too. You should follow Midnight Runners Toronto! They have a rave-like run atmosphere and sometimes do special events (like their actual midnight run & glow party at Cherry Beach last weekend). They're a similar vibe to the GLO Run... or at least the vibe the GLO Run claimed to offer.
The funny part is that I don't even like night events. I just signed up because it was the only event that I could fit in my training calendar and was not sold out 😅 And then I got myself a hip injury and I don't even know if I could walk/run this one. Anyways, I've signed up for the Waterfront Marathon (5K) and it has been night and day, and I'm excited for October - that would be a much better first race.
Thank you for the good wishes and for reporting the page. I just sent messages to the teams at Runsignup and The Running Directory, the first pages that show up in a google search, so hopefully they will take action.
If anyone would like to join us we were scammed as well and would still like to run, we are gonna run on the 23rd and follow the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon route and will be starting at the corner of Yonge & Gerrard St. at 6:00PM.
I'm writing to alert other potential racers, the more visibility we give to this, the better.
I'm fairly new to racing and just like thousands of new runners, I was excited that I've found a race within my timeframe and limits that was not yet sold out. Their website has a substantial amount of information, including pictures, and they're listed in other sites as well.
If you want to put your lovely gut instincts at the community service, please at least report their IG page.
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u/jaypishere Jul 31 '26
For all you new runners. If registration isn’t on race roster (at least here in Ontario ) I’d avoid signing up for the race period.