It’s been a whirlwind two months for Toronto’s Duncan McCabe, who went viral in late November for using Strava maps from his daily runs to create an animated dancing, hat-waering stick man. McCabe’s feat has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post and BlogTO, and now the 32-year-old is appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
McCabe’s segment will air on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 4 p.m. ET on CityTV, where he will be featured in the final segment of the night called “#WhatImLiking.”
McCabe, who works as an accountant for the cloud-based software company PointClickCare, says the process of being featured on the show is one he’ll forever remember. “They showed me how it was made and let me watch the whole thing from the producer’s point of view,” McCabe says. “When it got to my segment, I couldn’t believe how fast it went by.”
If you’re unfamiliar with McCabe’s viral video, he spent 10 months between January 2024 and October 2024 creating a Strava art drawing of a stick person. In the end, he combined his 121 runs to create one giant fluid animation set to Sofi Tukker’s hit song “Purple Hat.” The video has since been viewed nearly 30 million times across X and TikTok.
McCabe told Canadian Running in a previous interview that the biggest challenge of making the video was maintaining fluid transitions, which took him months to map out.
“I think The New York Times piece was my favourite,” McCabe says. “The reporter understood the project, and now I’ll forever have a full-length article about me in the Times!”
Toronto runner takes Strava art to the next level
