The story of running my first marathon during the middle of the bitter Canadian winter in Ottawa(-23°C with windchill ⛄)

Hello everyone 👋! It’s been a while since the last time I’ve written on Medium (throwback to hackathons from back in 2018!) but I wanted to share a bit of my journey in achieving one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life… running a marathon.

Why did I want to do this?

A marathon is no easy challenge, essentially 42.2 km of pure pain. Add on top some crazy winter Ottawa weather and you’ve got yourself a cocktail of a wild experience. Why’d I ever want to subject myself to such a thing? Well, I wanted to prove to myself that I can do anything I wanted to. What better way to do that than try to do something I would’ve never imagined I could pull off?

I wanted to prove to myself that I can do anything I wanted to.

I’ve never traditionally been a very athletic person. For those of you that know me, you’ll know that I was always more of the “nerdy” type growing up, with a particular interest in technology. I’d always thought of the athletes almost like a different “breed” of people, thinking that I just wasn’t that type of person.

However, when I entered highschool, my grade 9 gym teacher (shoutout to Mr. Kalbfleisch) convinced me to take on a sport and I chose cross-country — I loved the aspect of going outside on some great trails and not being a super competitive team-based sport. For me, it was always about competing against myself and seeing if I can continue to get better.

In my later years of highschool, I also picked up cross-country skiing and long distance events in track & field, which were also a great time! We were super fortunate to have some great coaches that pushed us positively (thanks Mr. Sniatenchuk, Mrs. Hurley and Mr. Clancy!). I think that one of the best parts of these events was making friends with people outside of my traditional friend groups from academics where I spent the majority of my time e.g. science fairs, hackathons, etc.

Speaking of hackathons, I think that long-distance races were quite similar in some sense in that they can largely be mental battles of surviving for the distance, rather than purely physical challenges — similar to trying to build a hack over the span of 36 hours at a hackathon 💻.

One of the videos that inspired me to do this was Ammar’s first marathon (shoutout to Yes Theory, gotta follow their mantra of Seek Discomfort — go check them out if you haven’t already!), where he runs a marathon without any training (which definitely isn’t the best idea). In the weeks leading up to the race, I binged a ton of Olympics, marathon, ultramarathon, Ironman and Spartan videos. Seeing Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-2 hour marathon was insane — I can barely try to sprint 800m at the pace he was going at (sub-3 minute/km pace for 42.2 km). Or Jim Walmsley’s 100 km world-record attempt, where he persevered through gashing his shoulder on a steel fence halfway through the race 😢. These videos did a great job of making me feel woefully underprepared but also got me super hyped up for the race 🔥.

Getting back into running 🏃

When I decided to get back into running in January 2022, it had been more than 5 years since my last cross-country race from highschool (back in the Fall of 2017, my grade 12 year). In university, I hadn’t picked up many sports, partially due to the University of Waterloo’s varsity cross-country team being way too good 😛. I found out that running in the middle of the Canadian winter is a whole different beast — getting hit with weather going down to -25°C, multiple snowstorms and icy roads. However, I’d personally take this any day compared to the sweltering summer heat — dehydration definitely isn’t as much of a problem in the winter!

Over the course of January, I tried to go out running quite regularly, averaging around 3–5 runs a week, with my two longest runs hitting distances of 20K and 23K respectively. It definitely took me a while to get back into the swing of things, with my legs being super sore after my first few runs, as my body tried to adjust to this feeling after essentially 5 years of minimal running. Though, in February, my runs steeply dropped off as Waterloo returned to in-person classes and midterms hit us like a freight train (note: I strongly recommend against my measly amount of training pre-marathon — try to follow an actual training plan)!

At this point, I knew I wanted to do a marathon at some point and I wanted to preferably do it in Canada, before I left for my next co-op term at the end of April. Unfortunately, the larger marathons such as the Waterloo/Toronto marathons were held in May. However, to my surprise, I found out about the Winterman marathon hosted by Somersault online — a crazy winter marathon in the middle of February, definitely the most Canadian race out there 🍁! That didn’t leave much time for training but it lined up nicely with the University of Waterloo’s reading week 📚, meaning I’d have a week for recovery after the marathon. After figuring out some of the logistics, I decided to go for it and pressed the button to sign up for the marathon, not really knowing what I’d just signed myself up for.

Gearing up 🧳

After I decided I wanted to do this thing, I needed to figure out exactly what kind of equipment I needed. Turns out, there’s a lot more things than just running shoes — I ended up getting the following:

• Gels 😋— realized that nutrition during super long runs is essential to surviving. I ended up getting Gu Energy Gels which had some cool flavours (I got the Vanilla Bean variety) and had a good mix of amino acids, sodium and caffeine. However, there’s a ton of variety in gels, so if you’re trying to run a marathon, go out there and experiment with which ones you like! Most importantly, try them out in some training runs before the race to make sure they don’t cause any gastrointestinal issues!
• Hydration shoulder pack🚰 — these things are super nifty to throw anything in! I used it to throw gels into, a granola bar and my water bottle. Though, funnily enough, the water bottle sucking mechanism on these froze up during the Winterman race which meant it was kinda useless (thankfully, there were aid stations with awesome volunteers that worked hard to keep the water from freezing!).
• Clothes 👚— getting some good running clothes that are moisture-wicking (fabrics that pull sweat away from your skin) and can help prevent chafing can be super important! I got a pair of polyester running tights which served to be a good inner layer to my track pants, accompanied with a long-sleeve shirt for my inner layer. In the winter, you gotta make sure you layer up — on race day, I wore 3 layers for my upper body (shirt, light jacket and hoodie).
• Bandaids/Body Glide/Vaseline 🩹 — I realized after a few of my longer runs that nipple chafing can be a big problem, leading to bleeding. As a solution, you can use bandaids to tape them up and prevent rubbing or Body Glide/Vaseline to act as a lubricant (thanks John for the advice!).
• Shoes 👞— getting a good pair of running shoes is critical! Note that they don’t need to be super fancy (some shoes cost an insane amount of $$$); just want a solid, reliable pair of shoes. I ended up using a pair of Adidas running shoes for the races but also got some Saucony spikes in case I’d be training/racing on icy trails or roads where the spikes could provide a lot more traction. Make sure you try them out before race day!

First race after 5 years — Ree-fridge-eighter ☃️

As I started to get back into things, I thought it’d be a good idea to try to find a few races to run before I get into really long distances. Coincidentally, it turned out Run Waterloo was organizing its first in-person race post-COVID in a few weeks! As the University of Waterloo had largely returned to in-person classes by this time, we were able to get quite the contigent of friends out for the race — it’s always better to race with friends! I really loved the Snowman-themed mascot for the race which meant they had some really cool medals (shoutout to the guy wearing an Olaf costume in the race!). For this event, just a week before the Winterman, I ran an 8-mile distance with a time of 1:08:00, which was honestly faster than I expected to run after such a long time of not racing (though I’m still quite slow in the grand scheme of things).

Trip to Ottawa 🚗

After a bit of friendly b̶u̶l̶l̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ convincing 😉 , a few friends agreed (shoutout to Steven, Albert and Jonathan!) to join me on the wild adventure up to Ottawa where they joined me as they raced the 5/10K races in the Winterman. We headed up to Ottawa on the day before the race where we were originally hoping that the Rideau Canal would be open, to check out the world-famous ice skating canal rink. However, unfortunately, the days prior had been quite warm leading to the canal being closed. We found out that the Icelynd skating trail which had recently been opened by an ex-Senators hockey player, Chris Neil, this year was open! We headed over to the trail and found it to be an awesome experience — a few kilometers of Zamboni’ed icy goodness that was awesome to skate on. Of course, skating the day before a marathon is probably a horrible idea but it was definitely worth it!

The Winterman marathon ❄️

The day had come… February 20, 2022. Could I actually finish a marathon? The weather wasn’t the best but it could’ve been worse — we started the day off with temperatures in the range of -23°C (with windchill) 🥶 and steadily went up to around -6°C by the afternoon. Due to the Ottawa protests in weeks prior, the course had been recently changed to the National Cemetery of Canada, which turned out to be quite a good choice of location with ample parking and cool military artifacts, such as tanks. Lining up at the start line, I nervously smiled at my friends and parents cheering me on, thinking to myself, can I really do this? Was this the dumbest idea I’ve ever had?

And… we were off (the announcer’s gun actually froze up due to the crazy weather)! Getting into the hype of the race, I started off way too hard with 5:16 min/km pace, trying to keep up with the others, forgetting that some of them were running the half-marathon and were much better runners than me. Lap after lap, I slowly became more and more tired and my pace slowed down to a measly 10 min/km jog at the end as I was struggling to just put one foot in front of the other. I tried to take a gel approximately every hour, each of which felt like ambrosia from the gods, giving me a boost of caffeine-powered energy 🍯. There were aid stations set up at the start line and halfway through the course with some amazing volunteers that worked hard to make sure the water/energy drinks didn’t freeze (thank you!).

At the end of each lap, I was greeted by an awesome group of folks cheering us on at the start line, including my parents, who’d refused to let me do the race on my own, and my friends 💛, who also ran their races with some great times in the 5/10K . After the 4th lap (half-way through the marathon), my brain kinda just turned off and I just kept repeating the lap number in my head, telling myself it’ll be over soon. During the race, I was listening to an upbeat, pop songs playlist, but my earbuds ended up dying in the 6th lap (still, quite impressed they managed to hang on for that long) 🎧. After that point, it was just me against the bitter winds of Ottawa’s winter howling in my ears 🌨️. As I found out during the race, the battle to finish is largely just a mental one — do you have the willpower to keep on going?

The feeling of crossing over the finish line is definitely one of the best moments of my life — after such a long day of constant running, knowing that I was able to complete my goal was simply amazing and all of the volunteers were cheering like crazy (massive shoutout to everyone for sticking around for me to finish!), a large part of why my pace sped up towards the end. Of course, my biggest cheerleaders throughout life, my parents, were there as well, as they had been for each of my eight laps around the course — supporting me in whatever I did ❤️. Check out a video of my finish below:

They even had some cool signs to hold after the race — accurately capturing my feelings at the time (shoutout to Adam and the rest of the Somersault crew!):

If y’all are interested in some stats — check out my Strava analysis below (shoutout to my friends for peer-pressuring me into getting Strava). Turns out I hit 50,869 steps over the course of the marathon, definitely a new record that tops my last one (~40k steps in a single day from organizing the Hack the North 2019 hacking weekend)📈.

You can do whatever you want to do 🔥

I definitely didn’t hit my original goals, with respect to my time to complete the marathon, but I did it. Something I’d never thought possible — completing a marathon. I realized that these barriers we put up to say we can’t do something because we’re just “not that type of person” are purely imaginary — you can do whatever you want. Even a nerdy kid that spends most of his time hacking away in front of a screen can run a marathon. So, go out there and do whatever it is that you want to do! Don’t let anyone stop you because it’s too crazy and most importantly, don’t limit yourself, thinking you’re just not the “type”.

As for my running career — I definitely won’t be running any more marathons in the next few weeks, as I struggle to walk downstairs, but you can bet I’ll be back soon to try and get a better time (ideally, in non-freezing temperatures)!

They even had a Red Bull car and bus at the event! The tech crew for the event was situated in the back of the bus pictured below.

Now onto the project! As avid gamers, we’ve always strived to fully immerse ourselves within the game. Whether it be ultrawide 21:9 curved 34 inch monitors or virtual reality, we love delving deep into the fantastical realm of video games. We wished to take this immersion to the next level using hardware input devices to control in-game objects. Currently, virtual reality (VR) headsets with dedicated controllers such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are prohibitively expensive for the average consumer, leading to the fact that many have not experienced the true sensation of being immersed into the world of video games. As such, we built a game that allows consumers to use relatively inexpensive devices, including their existing phones, to take part in such an experience.

Specifically, we used an Android phone and the Myo, created by Thalmic Labs, and as our controllers for the sword and the shield respectively. The VR game was built mainly in Unity, for the Google Cardboard headset.

The hardest challenges were to connect and receive data from the Myo and phone’s sensors. For the Myo, a few hours into the hackathon I realized that I had forgotten the Myo’s Bluetooth adapter which is used for Myo Connect, a program that allows the Myo to connect to PC. Thus, we looked for ways to directly connect to the Myo since modern laptops have Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Low Energy functionality built-in and tried a few workarounds to no avail. Next, we decided to directly connect to the Myo via our Android application which would be running the VR game. To figure out if this was even possible, we found the Myo Music application realized by Thalmic Labs, on the Play Store, which proved that the Myo was able to connect to an Android device via Bluetooth low energy and send gestures/data.

The next step was to figure out how to get the Myo connected in our own app. It turned out that there was another app in the Play Store called the Myo Whip, which was a simple application that detected when the Myo was violently jerked in a “whip-like” motion, displaying a playful “WHIP IT GOOD!” message on the screen with a whip sound effect (this game is addictive😀). We were able to use this app to understand how to connect to the Myo and modified its functionality to use the sensors, specifically the gyroscope, that we needed for our hack.

Links: Myo Whip Project Myo Android SDK

After a long day of hacking, at midnight we took a break to try out a few games such as Fortnite and League of Legends on the c̵o̵m̵p̵u̵t̵e̵r̵s̵ BEASTS provided!

A gaming tournament was also scheduled during the weekend, with professional streamers coming in to show their skills at games like Fortnite and Dota 2 which was super cool!

Of course, another critical part of the hackathon is the food! Red Bull, Bell and Omicron pulled through and they had some awesome food at the event with burgers and ice cream (did you know all food tastes better at 4 am?)!

The next morning, after a solid 2 hours of sleep, we were back to work! After successfully getting data from the Myo within the Android application, we had to figure out how to connect this application to the one created by Unity for our VR scenes. In the end, we exported the application into an Android Studio project from Unity’s interface and then manually added the Activities needed to enable connecting to the Myo. There was a super useful UnityPlayer.UnitySendMessage function that allowed us to inject data into C# Unity functions that were triggered from the Android Java Activity.

For connecting the Android phone, we used a local area network with Unity’s networking capabilities to directly connect from phone to phone and transmit data. We essentially “injected” the sword object into the Unity scene from the external Android phone which allowed us to control the object itself using its sensors.

We were able to get online 3D assets in order to create a Viking arena battle field, completing the visuals of our game. We used knights as enemies who swung their swords at the player, who is situated in the center of the circle (interestingly, knights and Vikings were around at the same time at one point in history around 1000 AD).

Of course, testing the game was the best part!

At the end of the hackathon, we were able to win the “Best VR/AR Hack” prize which was awesome! This time I didn’t sleep through receiving an award (😛 throwback to Hack the North)! Going into this hackathon, I had no idea what to expect, considering it was Red Bull’s first hackathon and the first gaming tournament I’ve been to but I can now say that it was an epic experience!

Project Links:

Devpost

FightVR

GitHub

froothacks/FightVR

Recently, I had the opportunity to compete at Hack the North hosted at the University of Waterloo. I was super excited to attend this hackathon as a Waterluvian, to check out Canada’s biggest hackathon (1000 hackers)! It definitely lived up to the hype! For goodness sakes, we had our very own Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk at the opening ceremonies! How can you top that?

Going into the hackathon, my team had no idea of what we were going to build. The only thing we knew was that we wanted to build something cool that had real-world application. However, after some feverish talking at the opening ceremonies and intense brainstorming, we decided to tackle the problem of taking notes. As high school and university students, my team had experienced first-hand the pains of trying to scribble down what the teacher is writing on the board as fast as possible, all while paying close attention to the lesson and attempting to understand what the heck is going on. We wanted to use technology in order to reduce the amount of work students have to do and allow them to focus on what the teacher is saying instead of struggling to keep up with their handwriting speed. Thus, we created SumNotes, a web interface which employs speech-to-text recognition and summarization APIs in order to provide the student with the key points of any lecture. Interestingly, this program can also be used in business meetings to summarize key points.

Onto the tech stuff! We wanted to offer students the ability to save lecture transcripts and key points. This meant we needed some method of storage. Coincidentally, Cockroach Labs, the creators of CockroachDB which is an SQL database, were one of the sponsors at Hack the North! After talking with them, we decided to go ahead and use CockroachDB as our database to store user and lecture data. Personally, it was my first time using an SQL database and creating a secure user login system which meant it took us a long time to figure stuff out. However, the CockroachDB employees were extremely useful in helping us out, even coming over to our hacking spot at 2 am to show us how we should structure our database. We also found that since CockroachDB is a modern SQL database solution, it didn’t have any archaic baggage that many other SQL databases have. It was sleek, fast and the GUIs for viewing data were awesome!

We used Flask in order to have a Python backend with a HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frontend. Initially, we faced several problems with finding a good speech recognition API that was also free, however in the end we decided to use the WebKit speech recognition API. Another challenge was finding a good summarization algorithm. After reading several interesting papers about summarization techniques and natural language processing (NLP) at 3 am (note to self: do not attempt to read scientific papers at 3 am ever again :P), we settled upon the “Sumy” Python API which provided several algorithms for summarization that worked relatively well. Ideally, we wanted to find a dataset that we could use in order to train our model with machine learning, however there weren’t any open data sets that we found relating to our program.

Pictures of the program:

Shoutout to esentire, one of the sponsors at Hack the North, for handing out these awesome rockets:

My teammates and I had a ton of fun running around the Davis Centre at the University of Waterloo shooting rockets at each other at 3 am when we were on a sugar high from all the chocolates we got!

In the closing ceremonies, I actually passed out since I was super tired (I hadn’t slept for the entire hackathon which was around 46 hours in length)! All I can tell you about the closing ceremonies is that the chairs were super comfy :P! However, after being forcibly woken up at the end of the closing ceremonies I came to know that our team had actually won the prize for the “Best use of CockroachDB”, which was EPIC!

The next week, I tried out SumNotes in my biology class and it worked quite well, which was awesome! We hope to continue working on SumNotes in hopes of an eventual release! In the meantime, time to compete at some more hackathons (won a prize for “Best Cloudflare App” at MHacks X the week after Hack the North)!

For a quick demo of our product check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/embed//7WO4xGwmXgE

For more details regarding SumNotes, please visit: https://devpost.com/software/sumnotes