My Sports goals for 2026

I’m personally not a big believer in new year’s resolutions. I think if you want to change something the best time to change it is now or maybe yesterday¹. But I have gotten convinced that I want to set myself some goals for sports this year.

I have not had the best 2025 in terms of sports. I was outdoor a lot, and quite active, but I was also injured on my foot for the better half of the year, which was not helpful for going running (or cycling for that matter). But this is now all healed up and I’m happy and ready to get back.

Goal #1: Run Jungfrau Marathon

Look this one is quite easy. Well not easy to train for, but the goal is clear.

Jungfrau Marathon is perhaps the most beautiful marathon in the world. Starting in Interlaken at 567 meters, you run 42.195 km while climbing nearly 2,000 meters of elevation to finish at Kleine Scheidegg at 2,302 meters—all with the stunning backdrop of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. It’s brutal, it’s gorgeous, and it sells out every year for good reason.

The 2026 edition is on September 12th, and I’ve already secured my spot. Now comes the hard part: actually training for it.

Goal #2: Increase my Eddington number to 40

This one requires a bit of explanation. The Eddington number is named after Sir Arthur Eddington (1882–1944), the British astrophysicist famous for confirming Einstein’s theory of general relativity during a solar eclipse expedition in 1919. But besides being a brilliant scientist, Eddington was also an avid cyclist and a bit of a stats nerd—a man after my own heart.

He devised a simple but elegant measure for cycling achievements: your Eddington number E is the largest number such that you have cycled at least E kilometers on at least E separate days. So an Eddington number of 40 means you’ve done at least 40 km on at least 40 different days.

What makes this metric beautiful is how it gets progressively harder to increase. Going from E=10 to E=11 just means you need one more day of 11+ km. But going from E=39 to E=40? You need to have 40 separate days where you rode 40 km or more. And E=100? That’s 100 days of century rides. Eddington himself reportedly achieved an E of 84–87 (in miles, the madman).

My current number is somewhere in the mid-30s, so 40 feels achievable but will require consistent effort throughout the year.

Goal #3: Get my tiles max square to 14x14

Okay, this one is admittedly a bit nerdy. If you’re not familiar with tile hunting: services like VeloViewer divide the world into a grid of squares (tiles), and every time you cycle or run through one, you “collect” it. Your max square is the largest complete square of tiles you’ve visited.

It sounds silly, but it’s genuinely one of the most motivating gamification features I’ve encountered. It pushes you to explore new routes, venture into areas you’d never otherwise visit, and sometimes plan entire rides around capturing that one missing tile in the corner.

My current max square is 13x13, and getting to 14x14 will require some creative route planning. There’s one particularly challenging tile that’s been taunting me:

I’m still figuring out the logistics for that one. Kayak? Very determined swimming? We’ll see.

So there we have it. Three goals, three different flavors of challenge. I’ll try to post updates throughout the year. Wish me luck—especially for that lake tile.