Half Marathon at BMO Vancouver Marathon 2023

After running in person at BMO Vancouver Marathon 2022, I registered for this year's edition for another 21.1 km run. I registered for another combo run (In-Person Half Marathon + Virtual 8KM + Virtual 5KM) for the "free" singlet. To prepare for the half marathon, I ran a few times from March to April and I also attempted a few week dieting to lose a couple pounds.

I finished the 21.1 km run in 02:19:55. It was a little faster than my half marathons last year and is now my fastest half marathon (so far). It felt great to finish the run and beat my personal record by a few minutes.

The record for the run according to the Strava app was 21.48 km in 02:19:52. It also said I got a few best efforts, including 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, and half-marathon.

After the run, we ate some food and roamed around the street festival, something we weren't able to do (no thanks to FedEx!). We then walked towards Burrard Bridge and cheered the marathon runners on both side of the bridge before going home.

I'll have another half marathon next month. Hopefully, I can join the 2024 BMO Vancouver Marathon.

Second Edition: How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin

The second edition of our book, How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin, has now been published. There are additions and updates to the first edition which was published on February 2021.

This book starts with the fundamentals of app development, enabling you to utilize Android Studio and Kotlin to get started with building Android projects. You'll learn how to create apps and run them on virtual devices through guided exercises. Progressing through the chapters, you'll delve into Android's RecyclerView to make the most of lists, images, and maps, and see how to fetch data from a web service.

You'll also get to grips with testing, learning how to keep your architecture clean, understanding how to persist data, and gaining basic knowledge of the dependency injection pattern. Finally, you'll see how to publish your apps on the Google Play Store.

You can get your copy of the book on Packt and on Amazon.