But no one can deny that c++ is the most fascinating programming language in this world. You can either spend or waste as long time as you want to __LEARN__ this language and never can say I understand ALL.
as a regular long run runner and coder, I totally agree with you. For training, not only building base is important, if you wanna achieve a good pace during marathon, running fast like a blast is part of it. More detailed, we basically have 4 phases for training.
1)acclimatizing phase,
2)building-up phase,
3)overall preparation phase, and
4)special preparation phase.
Hacktons are more like phase 4, not so accurate analogy,but the spirit is the same. Digging deep, changing the routine, a big improvement is coming.