Douglas RichesDouglas Riches
Engineer · Runner · Coffee

Start slow,
finish strong.

I build software that ships — then I go run a little further than I needed to, flat white in hand.

Douglas Riches — smiling in warm morning light Burlington, Ontario — usually mid-run
Selected work

Things I've built lately

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Keep it warm, keep it moving, and always leave the door open.

Field notes — morning run, km 14
Kilometres in 20252,767km
Marathons5plus a 99 km ultra
Field notes13posts
Cups this year5792–4 a day, counted daily
Field notes

Latest from the road

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Engineering

Shipping an AI code reviewer people actually want

What I learned building Vor, an AI code reviewer that runs as a GitHub Action. The line between helpful and annoying is thinner than you think — and the hard part was teaching it restraint.

Technology & Innovation

Your Brain's Emergency Fuel Tank: What Happens Inside Your Head When You Run a Marathon

You've heard of hitting the wall. You know the feeling — somewhere around kilometre 30, your legs turn to concrete, your thoughts go foggy, and the finish line might as well be on another planet. We've always blamed glycogen depletion, dehydration, or plain old fatigue. But a groundbreaking study published in Nature Metabolism has revealed something far stranger happening during a marathon: your brain starts consuming its own insulation to keep the lights on. The Study That Rewrote the...

Technology & Innovation

The Metabolic Ceiling: What Science Reveals About Your Body's Real Limits

If you’re an endurance athlete, you’ve probably heard the phrase “listen to your body.” Turns out, your body has been listening to physics the whole time. A fascinating body of research has uncovered something that elite ultra-runners, triathletes, and cyclists have long suspected but never quite proven: there’s a hard limit to how much energy your body can sustain, even when you’re in peak condition. And that limit is far lower than most of us think. The Discovery: The 2.5x Rule A landmark...

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Coffee's on me.

Building something warm and ambitious? Tell me about it — I read every message.