Anna Gibson Joins the Jackson Hole Athlete Team

Anna Gibson grew up steps from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and credits her passion for running to the world-class trail access here. We're excited to announce that Anna is joining the Jackson Hole Athlete Team, bringing with her a fierce desire to carve a unique path as a professional runner in both track and trail discplines! I sat down with Anna to help introduce her to the Jackson Hole community and beyond ahead of her first official race as a Jackson Hole athlete at the annual Rendezvous Mountain Hillclimb.

NB: Welcome to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Athlete & Ambassador team, Anna! Please introduce yourself to the Jackson Hole global community.

AG: All right! I'm Anna Gibson, I'm 25 years old, I grew up in Teton Village and I'm currently a professional runner in both track and trail disciplines.

How did growing up in Jackson Hole shape you as an athlete in person?

I think growing up in Jackson shaped me hugely as a person and as an athlete. There's really somebody here who is doing something bigger or crazier or more ambitious than you are and it's just this constant source of inspiration seeing people around you challenging themselves and making you question like, 'what could I do that would challenge myself to that point as well?'

What are your goals for your career right now?

Right now I'm pursuing professional track and trail, which is definitely a bit of an atypical combination. I think a lot of trail runners do a lot of other sports and have a multitude of interests, but on the track it's pretty rare to have a lot of other interests because the margins between people are so narrow. I love both so I've just decided to pursue both for now and try and see how well I can compete in both spaces at the same time.

And what motivates you to pursue this very unique path for a professional runner?

I think what motivates me first and foremost is having fun! I just really love both sports and when I'm in it, you know, when I'm out running in the mountains, that feels like the absolute most important thing and like the most fun thing and the best thing I could be doing. I wouldn't rather be anywhere else, but then I also feel that same way when I'm at a track meet that's a super high level and I'm competing with the best. It's just a completely different type of thrill that I also just absolutely love. And so I just can't imagine giving up one or the other. And I think there's a lot of people out there who who feel drawn towards multiple things at once and think they have to choose and I kind of feel like I'm on this experiment of like figuring out 'do you actually have to choose or can you succeed doing what you want to do and not making that choice'.

What are some of your most recent accomplishments from this race season?

I'm coming off of a little bit of a break from racing right now, but the most recent things I did were I competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 1500. There's three rounds to make it all the way to the final race where people are competing to make the Olympic team and I made it through the first two, which at my first Olympic Trials I was really proud of that performance. I'd like to go back in four years and get a little bit closer to qualifying for the team, but it was really cool to compete and be there. And six days before that I competed in the vertical kilometer at Broken Arrow Sky Race, earning second place. So I was truly living my dream getting to compete on the trails at one of the most competitive races, definitely the most competitive trail race in America and one of the most competitive races in the world and then backing that up with a track race at the U.S. Olympic Trials, just like the epitome of those two sports like smashed up right next to each other was really, really cool.

Tell me about your approach to running, why are you pursuing such a unique path? Does this kind of tie in with having a hard time choosing, not that you're indecisive, but just that you have passion for both of them? Do you have a favorite?

I would definitely say I am indecisive actually and my dad always says indecision is the key to flexibility and I love that because it's so true. If I just keep all these doors open and keep trying to, you know, excel then maybe one of them will turn out to be the one that I love the most or the one that I'm the most successful at over my career, but I just don't want to choose. And I think I've gotten a lot of like support from people around me just saying like, wow, this is so cool. And I think it's really cool to hopefully see that the approach I'm taking to doing both is inspiring other people to be more versatile and try things they want to try and do what they want to do. And I think that also ties in like doing other activities. I ride my bike a bunch, I ski all winter. I just have not been willing to give up the other things that make me happy. And I think that it's actually kind of a superpower. It's like that's what this is all about. You know, like it'll make you better at everything you do if you're just following what you love.

Is there anything specifically about either a track or trail that you find like super rewarding or that keeps you coming back for more every single time or maybe a challenging part of each of them that you like working at?

Yeah. I mean, I think the trails, it's easy to feel rewarded and addicted to it. And I think people who have been out in the mountains, that's probably pretty easy to understand. Being in nature and the freedom that you feel when you're running or even just walking or, you know, however you like to move through the mountains, like there's just so much gratification that comes from just being there and doing that. So I think that's what keeps me coming back there and to the track. It takes such hard work and so much discipline and you it might not be immediate, but you always see gratification from putting in hard work. Maybe it's years down the line, but I always feel like I get something back for every ounce that I put into it and I find that really satisfying and kind of addicting.

Do you see those lessons kind of taking form in your personal life as well?

Oh, hugely. Yeah. Honestly, I think sports have probably taught me like most of what I know. Like it's been my entire life experience for the most part. It's brought me all my community. It's like taught me all the lessons that I've learned. Yeah, it just teaches you the power of hard work and also humbles you. You just never know when you've reached your best.

So you're joining the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort athlete team. Congratulations! How does it feel?

It feels a little bit surreal, I think having grown up out here in the Village and having this place be such a centerpiece of my life in terms of community and the places that I've trained and recreated and everything, it just feels so central to who I am as a person, this place and yeah, I'm so excited. I think younger me would just be like falling down. She's be so excited and yeah, it's really cool.

What does it mean to you at this point in your journey in track and trail running and being a professional runner, what does it mean to you to be joining the team at this stage?

I mean, I think it's amazing because Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is one of the coolest running places I've ever been and it's literally my backyard and I travel the world to race and get to go to all these amazing little mountain towns over in Europe and all over the U.S., and it's so cool and makes me so proud to know that the place that I came from rivals all of them in my world. Just to get to be a part of that and help represent that in the world outside of Jackson makes me so proud!

When you're in the middle of a race, tell me about some of the mantras that you say to yourself to stay motivated to keep pushing towards the summit.

A lot of the time, I'm just trying to will myself to be calm because the race atmosphere can be really intense and there's a lot of emotions going through your head, especially as you're seeing things play out in front of you and you know how much work you've put in or how badly you want something and in the moment maybe it's happening, maybe you're having the best race ever and you're super surprised and excited or you could be like a bit demoralized and have to kind of talk yourself into it. So I'm always just like, 'okay take a deep breath, like relax, everything's fine' and I think another one that I use for a lot of the last year is 'like a machine', which is kind of just a way of telling myself the same thing, like your body knows what to do, just relax and be calm and your body will do what it needs to do to get you to the end.

Do you have any sources of inspiration either to you know in the realm of being a professional runner for one of the sports or both specifically, or do you just have general sources of inspiration for how you like to live your life?

I won't choose a person or people that inspire me, but I think the direction of sports right now is really inspiring just in general because I think there's so much storytelling happening. Athletes are telling their own stories, writing blogs, there are people, creatives who are getting involved, photographers, videographers, writers who are telling the stories of people pursuing hard things and I think a lot of that's happening in outdoor sports because it's so interesting learning about what someone is going through when they're out in nature challenging themselves. Watching ski movies is exciting, reading people's trip reports from multi-day running trips, that's inspiring, I've gotten pretty involved in following gravel racing and the way that gravel privateers just align all their sponsors and they choose what they want to do and they just pursue their passion in a sport that doesn't have a lot of structure. I think that's really cool and it's bringing so much character to sport. So I think I've been drawing a lot of inspiration from exciting media that people are making to like help tell the stories behind sports and behind the athletes that are doing them.

So you're in the middle of your season right now, what's on deck for the rest of the season? We've got the Rendezvous Hillclimb coming up on Saturday here at JHMR and I know you've got some other races as well planned, can you tell me about those?

Yeah I'm really excited, this is an exciting week because I'm back for the Hillclimb which I competed in as my first trail running race ever, probably late middle school or early high school. Getting to come back to the race that was the reason why I fell in love with trail running and racing in the first place is so cool. And then after that I go straight over to Europe and I race in Switzerland, which is part of the Golden Trail World Series, and the week after that I have a race in Poland, those are both sub-ultra, 28k distance roughly, then there's two races out in California that are also part of the Golden Trail World Series, Headlands 27k and Mammoth Trail Fest and then the Golden Trail World Series final in October back in Switzerland.

Do you have any goals for the Hillclimb?

I would like to take a stab at the women's record, I think it's a very stiff record but I've been feeling really good in training so I'm excited to go for it.

If you had to choose, what's your favorite run at JHMR?

Honestly, can I choose the Hillclimb course? I feel like that sounds like a cop out but it's truly the most iconic thing and I love the feeling of running from the base all the way up to the top of the tram, getting up there and seeing all these people who are standing on top of a mountain, which might be completely out of the ordinary for them and some of them are looking at you like you're absolutely crazy, but people are just so excited to be up there and taking it all in, and then getting to ride the tram down with everybody. I just absolutely love that so much, I think it's the most beautiful thing.

Final question, where would you like to see the trail running community grow in Jackson Hole or at JHMR specifically?

I think Jackson in general is a world-class running destination but I think that the community here just hasn't grown big enough to support what is happening with running in a lot of other places, like with group runs and really competitive events that are drawing people from all over the world. Obviously it's a small community so it's hard to kind amass the resources and even the amount of people to make those things happen but I truly think it's possible because like I said, I think everything here, the resources that we have here, the nature and the stoke around outdoor sports, that is enough to support a world class destination and experience for summer running and hiking.

Right on, that's all I've got, thanks Anna!

Thank you.