Can We Trust Marathon Pacers?
A pacer is an experienced runner that commits to other runners to run a race or a section of it in a predefined duration or speed. They also help with mental support for those who are struggling to stay out of their comfort zone. Many races have pacers, but not all. The ones that have attracted many runners looking for some help with their personal goals, like getting a new personal best, finishing a marathon under 4 hours, or even qualifying for Boston. But can we fully trust them to deliver what they committed to?
Continue reading...Introducing LibRunner
A good deal of being a geek is to code or understand coding. We love objectivity and hate subjectivity, so coding is the ultimate objectivity sophistication. If something can be expressed in numbers and logic, then code is the best way to materialize and document it. That’s why we created a programming library where we can express all the calculations related to running and let other geeks use and contribute to it.
Continue reading...Clojure Books in the Toronto Public Library
8 years ago I failed to write a book. I wrote it until chapter 3 but I couldn’t stand all the criticism coming from the editor and the reviewers. As the deadline to deliver chapter 4 was approaching, I was still overwhelmed by all the work to catch up with their feedback. So, I quit, but I learned something very important from that experience: the scrutiny over the writing of books makes them very good references.
Continue reading...Once Upon a Time in Russia
I was a Ph.D candidate in 2009, in the Electrical Engineering department, at Université catholique de Louvain. A coleague of mine, Russian, told me about this conference in Saint Petersburg and asked me if I wanted to submit a paper. I agreed, we wrote it together and it got accepted. Since she was in Moscow at the time, I thought she would present the paper, but our lab had a policy that they could only pay for trips from Belgium to Russia, not from Russia to Russia. So, I had to go.
Continue reading...Sports
Maratona do Rio 2024
It might be in our DNA. When we need to go to the washroom, the closer we get to that, the more pressing it becomes. Now, imagine you are actually there, and the washroom is not available, so you have to hold for another while. The distance to the closest washroom is 15 km, and if you need it again, you have to go for 27 km more. All that is covered by foot. When you heroically reach a washroom, you notice it has no toilet paper or hand sanitizer. Welcome to Maratona do Rio! The Rio Mara...
Walt Disney World Marathon 2024
The Walt Disney World Marathon is the kind of race to put in your bucket list to run once in your life time. No more than once I would say. It takes place in all 4 Disney parks in Orlando, in a time of the year, right after Christmas and New Year’s, when we eat the most and exercise the least. It feels more like a fun run than an actual competition, since there is a lot to see and it’s totally OK to do multiple stops to take pictures with the characters in the course. It is indeed the mo...
Tales from A Water Station Far Far Away
Running is the most collective among individual sports. There is a sense of community and mutual support rarely seen in other sports. When we go for a run with friends or in a race, we feel that we are not alone, that going through the same struggle actually reinforces our bounds. The same phenomenon happens all around the running event. Those who organize, volunteer, and watch such events also feel bonded among themselves and to runners. They also have the privilege of observing the runne...
Book Reviews
Ada's Algorithm James Essinger
I’m essentially an engineer and you’re probably one as well. The companies we work for are essentially technology-driven. We’re the lucky ones to work in such a thriving industry, but we would probably work in another industry or have a different career if it wasn’t for a woman, in the mid 19th century, who invented the concept of machine programming. Inspired by the Women’s International Day, I picked the biography of Ada Lovelace to recollect the influence of women in our society. Ada is k...
The Bomber Mafia Malcolm Gladwell
I guess it doesn’t matter how worse things can get, people always get used to them. It happened when Germany intensively bombarded London, it happened when the US bombarded Japan, and it is happening again during the COVID-19 pandemic. How could anyone imagine that a lot of people would refuse to be vaccinated against a deadly virus? Unbelievable! This book rescues our ability to see ethics and morality through the shadows of pragmatism. Sometimes, the most appropriate, humanized, and proven...
Talking to Strangers Malcolm Gladwell
When I got the role of team lead, the first thing I said to my new team was: “Our relationship starts today with full trust in each other. I believe you 100% from day one. “ It sounds precipitate, but I was just being vocal about how we all feel when we meet strangers. That’s what this book taught me right away: When most of us meet strangers, whatever they say we “default to truth”. If there is a book in the entire world that every single person must read is “Talking to Strangers”. It opene...