Anna Gibson grew up running in the Tetons and just made her mark on the biggest stage in the sport: the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain.
Gibson, 26, took home bronze for Team USA in the Uphill 6K race during her debut appearance at the competition. She also helped the U.S. women’s team win a silver medal in the Classic 14K race, finishing 13th in a field of more than a hundred athletes.
And she’s got a lot more miles to run and mountains to explore, with plans to dip her toes into the world of skimo racing this winter, too.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann chatted with Gibson before she headed to Italy for her last race of the season at the finale of the Golden Trail World Series.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Hannah Habermann: How did you get into trail running in the first place, and what inspired you to start competing?
Anna Gibson: During elementary school PE, we would have this little loop that we'd run around the playground, and that was the first time I remember really just being like, ‘Wow, this sport's cool. I really enjoy this.’ And I would try to push myself through those little laps.
Then I started doing track and cross country in middle school, and that went all the way through high school and then through college. I was just stepping up more and more and more in terms of competitiveness and the different types of running I was trying out.
I started doing trail [running] a little bit in high school. We were right on the trail, so we could literally go trail run and then go do track workouts.
One of our training sessions every year that everyone looked forward to was driving up to Grand Teton National Park and then running around Jenny Lake, one of the gems of Teton County and Jackson in general. And it was this iconic thing that we did every year.
HH: You won bronze in the Uphill 6K race in Spain, so you gained [over] 3,000 vertical feet in under four miles, and you did it in 46 minutes and seven seconds, which is wild! When was the moment you realized you could medal?
AG: I would say it was about halfway through that race.
I was in the race from the beginning, which was really exciting. It started up this road, pretty mellow grade. We were on pavement for a while and it was super fast, it felt almost like a road race.
Then all of a sudden, it just turned left up this really narrow staircase built out of rocks that was barely wide enough for two people to be next to each other. I was fortunate to get up that staircase pretty quickly and so I was in a good spot.
Talking to friends after the race who were way further back in the field, they got totally bottlenecked there and lost a ton of time.
From that point forward, I felt like I was in a really good position. I was already in the top 10, and I was feeling really good and super relaxed after that.
Then I just picked off one person and then another person. I was moving up in the field and then I realized that I was in fourth, and I think I made the pass into third maybe halfway through the race. I definitely was working really hard, so I was aware that it was possible somebody came and caught me from behind.
But when you're in that medal position, especially at the World Championships, I had this surreal feeling where I was just like, ‘Is this actually happening? This is insane. If I pull this off, this is definitely going to be the best race in my career.’
Meanwhile, so much energy was out there, there were just so many people watching, and I was seeing my family and good friends from back home and international runners that I've known for a number of years, and the views were just crazy.
Then it just escalated from that point, where I was like, ‘Oh, as long as I just soak up this whole experience and try my best, I'm going to end up in a good spot.’
HH: How did it feel to cross the finish line?
AG: It was really cool. That's the first time I'd ever been that high in the Pyrenees, so I was taking all that in while I was up there for the first time crossing the finish line. Letting it soak in that I had just pulled this off.
Thinking about it more after the fact, I would love to say that it's something I've always dreamed of or something I knew I was capable of for a really long time. But honestly, it was just this year that I realized that was something that I wanted to accomplish in my career. I didn't even know it would happen or be possible this soon, this year.
It was really cool to feel like I had just skyrocketed into this new level and pulled off something that I didn't even really know that I was capable of in that moment.
HH: You also helped the U.S. women's team net a silver medal in the Classic 14K race. What is it like to compete as part of a team?
AG: As a professional runner, there's not a lot of opportunities to compete in a team format if you're not a sprinter on the track. That just doesn't really exist, except at Worlds, which is super cool.
It took me back to running in high school and then running in college, where you are getting the most out of yourself, because you know that it will make other people happy or make them have a good day.
I was with three other women from the U.S. and we did run portions of the race together, which was cool. We'd been in the mountains for nine miles, [came] back and I am sprinting down the finishing chute with my friend Courtney, who actually also runs for Brooks, so she's a teammate in multiple senses of the word. That was just such a special moment.
I felt pretty bad on [that] day. It was hard to turn it around after the Vertical [race] – we had two days off in between. And then I raced the Classic, but I was just not feeling my best. I was just tired and it was hard to emotionally get back up to the same level that I was at two days before.
So I was struggling, but running with Courtney, knowing that we were in contention for a medal as a team, it made me truly get the most out of myself and not give up on the day.
HH: What are some lessons from running that you use in your day-to-day life?
AG: The point is not to be better than everyone else. The point is to continue to improve yourself and to be better than you [were] before. And I think that's something that applies to literally everything in life.
It doesn't really matter ultimately where you match up to other people. That's been at the forefront of my mind, especially with Worlds going on. Running has just taught me how to use the people around me to see what I'm capable of and push myself, but not to really, truly be competing against them. I'm just with them and we're all trying to do the same thing, which is to be our best.
HH: What makes you want to dedicate your career to this sport?
AG: It's so exhilarating and it's never the same twice, especially in the trail world. I come from a track background, so I know what it's like to run in circles. Even a track race, no two races go the same.
In trail, you have this whole other added element of being in a new corner of the world. Even the trail conditions, if you've run that trail before, they're different every time. The weather's different every time.
You're just exploring. It's a totally new experience every single time, and it's just really addicting to see where you are at that one moment in time with those particular conditions on that particular trail. I just think it's really fun!
HH: What are some of the challenges in pursuing this career path, and do you see any solutions to those challenges?
AG: I oscillate between being really excited about my career and the path it's taking me on. I love traveling. I love the people that I get to spend time with when I'm in these different locations. A lot of the time it's the same people that I end up overlapping with.
But it is definitely really hard to not also feel totally stable and like a home, or just feel like I'm 100% part of a community. I'm just in all these communities and bouncing around all the time.
It’s definitely been a challenge to find the right balance between traveling and that nomadic lifestyle, and then also making sure that I'm taking time for the people that I love and giving time to the other things in my life that I'm passionate about, that I'm settled and I don't feel super burnt-out from sleeping in a different bed every week around the world.
HH: What are some of your favorite runs in Wyoming, and what makes the state a good place for training for these kinds of races?
AG: I'm biased, but I think that Wyoming is the best for training. It's been huge for me to be training at altitude. I think that's a big piece of why Jackson is still really important to me and why I still call Jackson home.
I just feel the most at-home in that environment, the Rocky Mountains. Everything from flat, smooth trails down in the valley – I mentioned Jenny Lake, I just absolutely love that – all the way to running up and down the Grand Teton.
There's just such a variety of training environments and you can see all of the ecosystems at once, going up the mountains, which I think is really cool.
I just haven't found anywhere else that I feel so inspired by. Even if it's the same trail I've run 30 times, I never get tired of it.
There's also just so many different areas and so many different things you can do. I run in the Tetons most often because they're really close to home, but I also love the Winds so much. Such an untapped place for me still – after my entire life in Wyoming, I feel like I've seen so little. Every time I go into the Winds, I'm just amazed by what is there and how much there is to explore still.
I’ve also been getting to explore a little bit in the Gros Ventres, too. I've been slowly checking off areas in Wyoming that I want to explore, but it feels like there's just so much public land and so many things to go run at some point in my life.
HH: Anna, what would you say to someone who is running curious or wants to get more into running?
AG: All you have to do is start, and the beginning is the hardest part. It's really hard at the beginning. The first couple weeks of consistent running I feel like are just the most challenging part. But it just gets so much better after that.
For me, mentorship has been really important. As I've gotten into new sports or taken my running career in different directions, finding somebody who knows what's going on and knows what to do and how to lead you in the right direction, I feel like is really key.
