![\"Heather](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/heather-jackson-im-lake-placid-2021b.jpg\")
Heather Jackson is now starring in new sports (Photo by Patrick McDermott\/Getty Images for IRONMAN).<\/p>\nHeather Jackson admits she sometimes misses triathlon \u2013 but the six-time IRONMAN champion has a new challenge now, one she finds much more exciting.<\/p>\n
Jackson placed in the top five four times at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona \u2013 but she has no plans to go back and improve on her third-place finish in 2016.<\/p>\n
She quit swim\/bike\/rum in 2022 to embark on a new adventure in ultra trail running and gravel bike racing \u2013 and is about to take on the \u201cultimate challenge\u201d of the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run for the third time (June 28 and 29).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kona of this sport\u201d<\/p>\n
She told TRI247: \u201cWestern States is one of the races I knew even when I was doing triathlon. It always seemed to me like the Kona of this sport. This is the race. It was the first one I ever wanted to do coming out of triathlon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve raced it twice now. This will be my third year. Every year it\u2019s special. Only 300-something runners get to race it and I don\u2019t take that for granted. It\u2019s a special weekend that everyone here in north America looks forward to.<\/p>\n
Heather Jackson is now starring in new sports (Photo by Patrick McDermott\/Getty Images for IRONMAN).<\/p>\n
\u201cTrail running is so crazy. In triathlon it\u2019s all slow gains. In trail running you can pass 10 people going up but then on the descent someone comes flying by, so it\u2019s more of a rollercoaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch Kona now and I miss it but the second I think about the swim and what I would have to do being in the pool every day, I do NOT miss that. I HATED it. I could never get the love for it. I hated the swimming. <\/p>\n
\u201cI tried so hard, worked with so many coaches. I just sink. I don\u2019t know what it is.\u00a0I have more time in the day now. The swim always took too many hours in the day. It took an hour to get there. Two hours in the pool. An hour to get home.<\/p>\n
Why trail running is so much fun<\/p>\n
\u201cI think trail running is so fun. It\u2019s a different approach. Not staring at splits and trying to hit them on a flat road. You\u2019re climbing mountains, seeing cool places, you\u2019re out in nature. It\u2019s reinvigorating for me. I go out and run in the woods. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe technical aspect I struggled with the most because I haven\u2019t run much off road. I rolled an ankle the first year so many times. Learning that technique has been the biggest thing. But I would say to anyone who is even thinking about it \u2013 just try it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo by Patrick McDermott\/Getty Images for IRONMAN<\/p>\n
Her latest run is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Billed as the ultimate challenge for the long-distance runner, the Western States course ascends to an elevation 8,750 feet, a climb of \u00a02,550 vertical feet, in the first 4\u00bd miles.<\/p>\n
Rugged and remote<\/p>\n
Runners then travel west, climbing another 15,540 feet on a trail that is rugged and remote before descending 22,970 feet to reach the small town of Auburn in the heart of California\u2019s historic gold country. They must reach the finish line no later than 10:59:59 a.m. on the following day in order to be eligible for an award.<\/p>\n