Solely three weeks after ending in fourth on the 2026 Cocodona 250 Mile, American Heather Jackson is gearing up for a totally completely different occasion: the 350-mile Unbound XL gravel biking occasion. It’s a race she received with a course file final 12 months. She’s planning on following that up a few weeks later with the two,745-mile Tour Divide self-supported bikepacking race stretching north to south throughout western Canada and the western United States. And two months after that? UTMB.
Finishing simply one among these occasions could be sufficient for many athletes, however Jackson is attempting to suit all of them into one season. Why these races? Between Cocodona 250 Mile, Unbound XL, Tour Divide, and UTMB, Jackson has chosen the Tremendous Bowl equivalents in 200 milers, gravel biking, bikepacking, and mountain ultrarunning. Jackson explains, “I’m all the time intrigued by racing the large races the place one of the best are there, and seeing, ‘Okay, that is the place I stack up.’” Jackson is way over an elite ultrarunner, and when she got here to path working in 2022, she had no intention of doing it in a standard method.
In an ultrarunning world the place most high athletes observe fairly predictable schedules main as much as their most important race of the 12 months, Jackson is selecting to do the precise reverse. With a seventh-place end on the 2024 Western States 100 and fifth on the 2024 CCC on her resume, Jackson could be thought-about within the higher echelons {of professional} runners, but in lots of elements of her strategy, coaching, and race preparation, she couldn’t be extra completely different.
Jackson is probably finest identified within the ultrarunning world as an athlete who additionally excels at gravel bike racing, and she or he has no intention of abandoning one sport with the intention to specialize within the different. As knowledgeable triathlete for 15 years with 4 top-five finishes on the Ironman World Championships, she’s carried out the full-focus factor, she’s optimized her preparation for the one huge dance of the 12 months, she’s dedicated a full 12 months of coaching to a single efficiency — a number of occasions. However at 42 years outdated, she says, “I’d somewhat do each [gravel cycling and ultrarunning] at this level in my profession as a result of for me, these years have been bonus years.”
After retiring from skilled triathlon in 2022, absolute peak efficiency was now not the objective. “I wished to attempt these new issues. Is Cocodona 250 one of the best prep for Unbound XL or Tour Divide?” she asks. Jackson is aware of the reply is “most likely not.” One may speculate that using a motorcycle throughout the U.S. for two-plus weeks with none outdoors help can be an unconventional strategy to working UTMB later in the summertime. She explains, “However that is what I need: to see what I can do. On a private degree, I like doing each. I’m impressed and intrigued by each, and I’m letting go of, ‘Okay, this isn’t essentially one of the best prep.’”
Heather Jackson racing the 2024 Unbound 200 a couple of weeks earlier than putting seventh on the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph courtesy of Heather Jackson.
Jackson has already had a profession that any skilled athlete could be happy with. Now, as a substitute of chasing a consequence at a single A-race, she’s choosing a number of occasions that excite her — whatever the sport — and if the previous few years have proven something, the strategy appears to be working.
Rising Up on Ice
Jackson grew up in New Hampshire taking part in all of the sports activities. Her mother was a bodily training instructor and threw Jackson and her three siblings into something that she was teaching or refereeing after faculty. This led to publicity to the whole lot from softball to snowboarding to lacrosse. Jackson laughs when she says, “I feel it was simply baby care, but additionally us expending power.”
For Jackson, soccer and ice hockey caught. “I bear in mind we went to one of many first [FIFA Women’s] World Cup soccer video games in 1994, and I used to be obsessive about taking part in the World Cup. After which once I bought into hockey, we’d watch NHL [National Hockey League], and there have been two ladies that performed within the NHL, Cammi Granato, after which there was a goalie, and I used to be like, ‘I need to play within the NHL.’” Exceling in each all through highschool, she was recruited by numerous faculties for each sports activities. Finally, she selected the Division I ice hockey program at Princeton College due to the academic alternatives it provided. All through her collegiate profession, she had her eye on making the U.S. staff for the 2006 Winter Olympic Video games in Italy, spending her summers coaching with the under-18 after which under-22 nationwide groups on the Olympic Coaching Heart in Lake Placid, New York. When the 27-person staff for the Video games was introduced, Jackson wasn’t on it. As a university senior, and with few non-collegiate ice hockey alternatives obtainable on the time, she moved on from the game after commencement.
Heather Jackson crossing the American River in the course of the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Only a few skilled runners come from a background in ice hockey, however Jackson thinks that rising up within the sport has in the end led to her longevity as an athlete. In her early years in sport, as a substitute of worrying about her weight — as is frequent amongst many runners of all ages — she says, “I had the alternative. I used to be 40 kilos heavier than I’m now, needing to carb-load on pasta each night time. I used to be within the weight room lifting.” Jackson factors out, “I’ve solely had one critical damage, a stress fracture,” however goes on to snicker, “Versus I’ve rolled my ankle in path working so many occasions as a result of my ankles are so weak as a result of they have been in skates for 20 years. They didn’t should work on their very own.”
In 2006, with a political science diploma and a instructing certificates to her identify, Jackson admits that after school, there was a little bit of a “now what?” second. Missing clear route, she accepted a instructing place in ninth-grade world historical past and moved to San Jose, California.
Whereas the instructing didn’t work out — “I wasn’t a great disciplinarian,” Jackson admits — the transfer opened up alternatives for 22-year-old Jackson that set her life on a totally completely different trajectory.
Discovering Triathlon
Earlier than leaving New Hampshire, Jackson had joined her mother and father for a neighborhood triathlon, using a mountain bike that she’d had since she was a child. It was her first time doing a person sport in a very long time, and she or he was instantly hooked by the chances, “It was this primary time that it was like, ‘That is on me. If I labored on this, I might be even higher.’” San Jose had an lively triathlon neighborhood, and Jackson was quickly entrenched.
She shortly met her future husband, Sean “Wattie” Watkins, on a bunch trip, and she or he says, “He was like, ‘You can completely go professional at this. You’re so sturdy. You need to give it a attempt.’ And for me, it was like, “Okay, I don’t have to show. Let’s give this a attempt.” It was a serendipitous confluence of circumstances, as Watkins labored for “Triathlon Journal” and used his business connections to rustle up help for Jackson. By 2010, after ending second on the 2009 Ironman 70.3 Austin, she’d secured herself a spot on the Trek/Okay-Swiss Skilled Triathlon Staff. All the time a powerful bike owner, she’d began shifting her physique composition from that of an ice hockey participant to an endurance athlete, getting lighter and bettering her swimming and working. Specializing in three completely different sports activities had its appeals: “You’ve got three issues to get higher at. You all the time have one thing to work on.”
Heather Jackson had a profitable 15-year skilled profession in triathlon. Photograph courtesy of Heather Jackson.
Over the following 12 years, Jackson turned obsessive about the Ironman World Championships held in Kona, Hawaii, and structured annually round arriving on the island able to compete. She positioned within the high 5 4 occasions between 2015 and 2019, ending as excessive as third in 2016, however the world title remained elusive.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down swimming pools and restricted Jackson’s capability to coach in her weakest sport, mixed with adjustments surrounding the politics of Ironman, triathlon began to lose its enchantment. She raced her ultimate Ironman Kona in 2022.
Transferring to Trails and Gravel
Jackson says that when she transitioned away from triathlon and into gravel biking and path working, “I didn’t suppose it was going to turn into type of a second profession.” She explains, “I knew I used to be carried out with triathlon — I simply didn’t have that drive anymore — however I had a 12 months or two left with completely different sponsors and had advised them I wished to attempt these different issues, and so they have been all on board.”
In August of 2022, Jackson positioned third on the 150-mile Gravel Worlds in Lincoln, Nebraska, after which in October, she positioned fifth on the Javelina 100 Mile. In 2023, she received a few of the greatest gravel races within the U.S., after which went again to win the Javelina 100 Mile, in addition to the Canyons 50k. A 12 months later, she completed seventh on the 2024 Western States 100, only a few weeks after ending fifth on the Unbound 200 Mile, one of the vital aggressive gravel races within the U.S.
Heather Jackson successful the 2023 Belgian Waffle Trip San Diego. Photograph courtesy of Heather Jackson.
If Jackson was prepared for the bodily rigors {of professional} ultrarunning and gravel racing, she was shocked by the quickly altering degree of professionalism in each sports activities. She says, “Each gravel and path working really feel like the place triathlon was 15 years in the past, the place now they’re these skilled sports activities. I got here from being type of carried out with the high-performance facet of triathlon and needing one thing extra enjoyable, like ‘Okay, path working: We get to run up some mountains. Or gravel: We’re simply using by means of these off-road cool spots.’ I wished to attempt these sports activities and revel in them.”
However as a substitute of getting sucked into the growing professionalism and the whole lot that goes together with it, together with specialization, Jackson is charting her personal path. “I’m not treating these two new sports activities like I did triathlon. I specialised in that for thus lengthy. That is, ‘I’m coaching as exhausting as I can.’ I need to do each. We’ll see if I can.”
An Ecclectic and Formidable 2026
Jackson understands that to be on the very pinnacle of a sport, specialization is probably going required; she simply has little interest in doing so. “I feel it’s a mixture of the place I’m at in my profession and eager to attempt each. I need to attempt to do my finest. I like to race. If I’m beginning a race — I don’t need this to sound cocky — I’m going for the win. I need to race on the entrance.”
Jackson’s 2026 race schedule appears just like the mixed schedules of an elite ultrarunner, gravel racer, and bikepacker, the latter a brand new sport for Jackson. Desirous to go even additional on a motorcycle, she’s including multi-day, self-supported bikepacking to her resume — the place riders navigate an unmarked course with none outdoors help — and in June, she’s beginning with the largest race on the calendar: the two,745-mile Tour Divide, stretching from Banff, Alberta, Canada, to the Mexican border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
Heather Jackson racing by means of the night time to set a brand new course file on the 2025 Unbound XL. Photograph courtesy of Heather Jackson.
There’s pleasure behind every race, “Cocodona was first on the calendar. I signed up for it final 12 months in the course of the race. Then I raced UTMB [in 2025] and was simply upset in the way it had gone. So these have been the 2 on the run facet that I wished on the calendar for this 12 months.” Then round these, she’s packed in different high working and biking occasions.
She began the 12 months with a sixth-place end on the Large Alta 50k and received the Desert RATS 100k, securing her an entry to UTMB this summer time. Subsequent got here the Cocodona 250 Mile, the place she ran in podium place for a lot of the race earlier than sleep deprivation bought one of the best of her within the ultimate miles of the race. Having by no means carried out an occasion that lengthy, she says she didn’t have the fitting mindset when issues began to go sideways within the ultimate part, the place she couldn’t have a pacer. “I feel I used to be panicked. I didn’t know the place I used to be. I used to be having all these hallucinations and simply bought scared by them. Versus, I talked to Rachel [Entrekin] after, and she or he’s like, ‘Yeah, I adore it. I’m similar to, ‘Deliver it on.’” In abstract, she says, “It was going nice till it wasn’t, mainly.”
Heather Jackson successful the 2026 Desert RATS 100k and incomes a spot in UTMB. Photograph: UTMB/Glen Delman
With Cocodona simply three weeks previous, Jackson is lining as much as defend her title on the 2026 Unbound XL on Might 29, a 350-mile gravel race that she received with a course file time final 12 months of 20:57:57. From there, she has simply two weeks till Tour Divide. She says she’s nonetheless unsure if she’ll begin the occasion with the group on June 12, or delay for a few weeks for a bit extra restoration and do a person time trial.
From the top of that, Jackson can have roughly 9 weeks to get well and ramp again up for UTMB, a race she wished to return to after struggling within the chilly situations in 2025 and putting a disappointing nineteenth.
After all, there are a couple of different bike occasions deliberate for later within the 12 months after coming back from Europe.
Giving Again Via Storytelling
If the COVID-19 pandemic opened the door to gravel biking and path working, it additionally supplied the fitting situations for Jackson and her husband to create a YouTube channel and video manufacturing firm, Grime Brigade. What began as creating coaching vlogs to provide again to sponsors throughout a interval with out racing has become a chance to inform essential tales within the path working area.
Jackson in the course of the early miles of the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Now, along with common movies documenting her personal racing, Grime Brigade has had the prospect to work with Hoka on a collection known as “Braveness to Strive.” The collection, which has three launched episodes with extra on the way in which, follows particular person ladies as they stability life, working, obligations, and concern whereas exploring themes of resilience and neighborhood. Jackson sees it as a chance each for the current and the longer term. “I’m older. I get it. However I had mentioned to [Hoka], ‘I’m hoping at this level in my profession to do some form of mission the place I’m in a position to give again.’”
Embracing the Unknown
For a runner originally of their profession, a top-10 end at Western States adopted by a high 5 at CCC is likely to be an incentive to double down on working to see simply how good they will get. However for Jackson, the times of singular focus are within the rearview. The driving forces are actually the non-public objective of seeing what’s attainable and doing issues that excite her.
Jackson is aware of that what she’s trying this 12 months is a huge step into the unknown. Because the season progresses, there’s a great probability that issues is not going to go as deliberate. However Jackson is able to be taught from all of it. Whether or not it’s the results of sleep deprivation throughout Cocodona or no matter different points she’ll encounter and should problem-solve by means of throughout the remainder of her summer time, it’s all one huge experiment.
Jackson comes by means of Pointed Rocks in the course of the 2024 Western States 100 on her solution to a seventh-place end. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
When Jackson came to visit to gravel biking and path working, she was seeking to be taught new abilities and take a extra laid-back strategy to sports activities than she’d carried out with triathlon. There wasn’t the stress of making a long-term profession in both sport. When she discovered herself within the higher ranks of each, she refused to deviate from her course. It’s clear she’s going to do issues her means and for her personal causes: as a result of it’s enjoyable.
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