toronto

Some people run for exercise. Some people run for fun. Some people do both, but one Toronto runner has taken exercise and fun to the next level in a way only made possible with modern technology and a whole lot of creativity.

Like many runners, Duncan McCabe uses an app to track his runs. Strava is a popular app for this purpose, as it allows you to visually see your routes and keeps a running log of them. McCabe took advantage of both features, going for 121 runs over 10 months and logging over 1,100km (683 miles) to create an animation that is utterly mind-blowing.

Carefully planning out each route as a frame in a stop-motion video, McCabe made a stickman out of his runs and put them all together to make it dance. And not just a little wiggle—the stickman does specific dances, walks, and even flips its hat.

Check this out:

People have been understandably blown away by the animation.

"At first I was like wtf, and then I was WTF. 😳"

"This is one of the coolest, most unique creative things I've seen on the internet!!"

"I hate running, but love a campy craft project. This has motivation potential."

"The level of planning for this is 🤯🫶🏼"

"When he started walking my mind was blown 🤯👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼"

Duncan has shared that the walking was his favorite part of the video to make. "I got goosebumps when I had the idea of him walking down the road," he wrote in a comment. "I just needed to run the 1,100km before I could see the finished product."

He also explained how he got the diagonal lines, which appear to go straight through buildings instead of along possible running routes.

"I had to pause then unpause the route when I got around the corner," he wrote. "Which works, but I don’t get credit for running those KMs. So it may say I ran 9km but some days but it could be closer to 10 or 11."

There was a little editing in the video post-production for the hat flip, as all segments have to connect in Strava and the hat flip visual required there to be empty space between the head and the hat. A miniscule detail in the large scheme of things, so absolutely no shade. Even Strava commented on the video on TikTok: "10/10 Strava art-ing. Kudos!"

So how did McCabe decide to create this kind of video in the first place? He didn't start with the dancing man. He actually started with animals. Here's a video he made in 2023:

“I love working with video," McCabe told The Guardian. "And over the years I’ve come to appreciate that one of the most powerful and underused tools is the passage of time. And motion is just time unfolding.”

Some people don't believe that he actually did it. Skeptics have tried to explain away his results.

"They say that instead of running four times a week, I flew a drone, lied to my friends and family in the hopes that a novel idea takes off,” he said. “Because that’s oddly more satisfying than accepting I just ran a lot for a long time.”

McCabe doesn't even enjoy running that much, but he does it for the art of it, creatively using the pause and unpause feature to connect different points to create a diagonal line and committing to each route even in terrible weather. “Every second of animation requires one and a half marathons worth of effort,” he told Yahoo Canada. "It’s not a very effective way to make animation, but it’s the one I wanted to do.”

The video and its virality even earned him a spot on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where he said he was looking forward to doing a similar video. "Exactly what? Still working that out, but I'm motivated for whatever it is," he said.

Serious kudos. Can't wait to see what comes next.

You can follow Duncan McCabe on TikTok and Instagram.