In an exclusive interview, Trail Runner managing editor Abby Levene spoke with cross-country skiing icon Jessie Diggins in Kona, Hawaii, just days ahead of the Ironman World Championship. Diggins opened up about overcoming significant challenges to finish and win her first 100-mile race, the insights from her skiing career that she is applying to trail running, and her unique pre-race tradition of applying face glitter.
After concluding her career in cross-country skiing as the most decorated American athlete in the sport, Jessie Diggins did not simply fade away. The Olympic gold medalist added one final accolade in Milan-Cortina this past spring, despite competing with bruised ribs. She then transitioned into trail running with enthusiasm.
This year, Diggins participated in the Broken Arrow Triple Crown in June, a tradition she has embraced. Following that, she faced off against elite trail runners at Sierre-Zinal in August, claimed victory at the Superior 100-miler in September, and most recently triumphed at the Trail Animals Running Club Stone Cat Trail Festival 50-miler in Massachusetts.
On the surface, her transition into trail running appears seamless, with Diggins insisting that she is engaging in the sport purely for enjoyment. However, there is much more depth to her journey. During our conversation in Kona, where she had just returned from a snorkeling adventure in search of a sea turtle, she shared her experiences and newfound love for trail running. Her insights included how she views the sport as a collaborative effort, the significance of personal achievements beyond just results, the challenges of fueling with an unsettled stomach, and how her love for glitter carries over from the snowy trails to the dry ones.
Exclusive: Jessie Diggins on Running 100 Miles, Teamwork, Fueling, and Sparkle Power
This year, Jessie Diggins has enjoyed a variety of trail races, starting with the Broken Arrow Triple Crown in June. (Photo: Andy Cochrane)
This interview has been edited for clarity. You can also watch some of it above.
Trail Runner: You just ran your first 100-miler! Tell us about it.
Jessie: It was a really cool experience. It was so humbling, but so exciting to tackle a totally different challenge. I was filled with curiosity: What will this feel like? What’s going to happen to my body? What will happen inside my brain? How does this work?
Having a crew and pacers like that is very different from skiing. [In skiing] you are alone on the trail, and people can cheer for you, but you don’t actually have anyone with you on the trail. And so it was just so exciting I got to do it with a team. That was really big for me. I’m a very team-oriented person, and I would get so excited to come into the aid station and see the crew and to get to have a pacer with me. Even when I was falling apart and couldn’t even talk—I was at a really low point—it was just like, ‘every step you take is a step you don’m here with my team and I’m pushing my limits and I’m seeing what’s possible for me.’ And that’s so exciting.
How did you work through that low point?
I would just tell myself ‘Hey, I get to be here. I get to do this. I got to sign up for this. That’t have to take again.’ So I was just like, ‘I’m doing it. I’m slowly working towards that finish line, step by step.’ It was so funny because even when I was deeply uncomfortable, I never actually thought about quitting, which I thought I would. It was more just like I’m so uncomfortable, but I know I can if I just keep moving. Even if I’m slowing down, even if I’m not even able to run, I have to just power hike this section. I’m still moving towards my goal. I’m in the process of getting there, and that’s exciting in and of itself.
You’ve had an amazing season. What’s your takeaway from your first year on the trails?
I kind of wanted to set up a charcuterie board of the trail world and try different things because they were all so different, right? Broken Arrow is a huge festival and it was a multi-day thing, so oh my gosh, what is day three gonna feel like? Can I even run downhill on day three?
And then Sierre-Zinal is so historic, and it was such a cool course. It was beautiful, and it was like experiencing a very classic “short” trail race, right? I was like, ‘this is not short.’ It took me 3 hours, but it was so cool to experience.
And then going into the 100 miler, it was different and more of a backyard format. Or not a backyard in terms of the laps, but like there was no award ceremony. It wasn’t about winning. It was just about doing it, and I love that. That is so aligned with how I feel about racing. It’s like, ‘No, we don’t really care who wins. We just want everyone to challenge themselves and hopefully make their goal of crossing the finish line.’ And that was so cool for me.
And so getting to be a part of each of these events, I got to experience so many different angles of the trail world and meet so many people. And for me, that was a big thing, too: feeling the sense of community that was around every single race and making new friends and trying something new. That was very cool.
Are you excited to do more, or do you feel like you’ve filled your cup?
No, I definitely am excited to do more. I don’t know what that’s gonna look like yet, but I feel like just getting to be involved in this world is so cool and so exciting. So, I’m sort of now in the phase of like, ‘OK, I feel like I’m bouncing back with 100. Like, my body’s coming back, and now I can start dreaming and scheming and brainstorming, like what else do I want to do? What else is out there? What excites me? What feels like the appropriate challenge for this phase of my life?’ Yeah, I’m trying to figure it all out.
You mentioned you’ve learned a lot from skiing that you’ve brought over to trail running. Can you tell us some of those things?
I think the biggest thing was in training, like listening to my body. So I stopped wearing a heart rate monitor like five or six years ago, and it was really about being in tune and listening to my body and figuring out where I can push. What does it feel like when I’m riding that line of level three, and what are the signals in my body when I’ve gone over that line and I need to pull it back?
And so really trying to deeply understand how I feel, and I feel like that’s helped me steer away from injuries too, because I’m not relying on metrics. I want to feel how my body feels and respond to that and act on those feelings. I think that’s something I’m taking with me because I’m well aware now that running can really beat you up in a different way. Even listening to my body and learning how much can I eat while I’m running because your stomach is a washing machine and that does not happen in cross-country skiing.
Speaking of fueling, how have changes in fueling impacted your training over time?
I think it was really exciting in my final years of cross-country skiing, learning more about high-carb fueling and having all these great products come on board. Because in a ski race, let’s say a 50-kilometer race, you come through a feed zone, but you have gloves and your hands are in poles, so you are not like ripping open a gel. You’ll end up stabbing yourself in the face. And so what you do is you tuck your poles under your armpits and you grab the feed bottle, which is usually an actual baby bottle with the lid taken off, from a coach who cannot run with you, they have to just stand there and hold it by the rim. So you grab it while you are gliding quite quickly. You down it so you get like a few good sips, and then you have to chuck the bottle on the side and keep moving. And so having really high carb drink mixes where you can, if you only can get a few mouthfuls, you need them to count, and so having these was huge. Because before it’d be like, ‘I guess we’ll boil down Coke to de-fizz it, and that’s what you can have.’ But it just wasn’t high carb enough, and the electrolyte balance might not have been great.
Now there’s so many options, and that really changed the way I could race. And so now, in trail racing, there’s all these different gels. You can find the one that works for you. There’s all these different mixes. You can find the amount of salt that works for you. That’s been really cool. Being able to tailor it. I feel like 15 years ago, there weren’t that many options. Now having more options is power.
You’ve done a remarkable job throughout your ski career of keeping it fun. Do you have any advice for others on how to do that?
I do get scared. It’s funny. I just saw on the elevator this morning a woman was wearing glitter, and I was like, ‘Yes!’ That was my whole thing through my ski career. And it came out of being scared and being nervous. And I feel like people don’t always know that that’s the origin. But I would get so nervous for races, and a little bit of nerves is great. It means you care. If you’re not nervous for a race, it’s sort of like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ You know, then it’s time to maybe examine, do I really care about what I’m doing?
Like with any work project, any life thing, I think that a little bit of nerves is super healthy. It also brings out the adrenaline and it tells your body, ‘I am ready to perform.’ But I would get nervous to the point where I’m stealing all my energy, and so it was hard to take yourself too seriously when you’re actually just covered in glitter. And so I would put on the sparkles as this promise to myself, like, ‘Hey, I get to be here. I get to do this. I got to sign up for this. That’s amazing. I have an opportunity to go out there and do my best at a sport that I love with a team that I love, and that’s really cool.’ And so the glitter was my pre-race ritual of ‘I’m going to go out there and have fun and remember to smile at the start because I’m so lucky to get to do this.’ Because sport is ultimately in the entertainment category. It is literally fun and games.
At the end of the day, yes, there’s a lot of pressure. There can be expectations. There can be a lot of lights. A lot of people are watching you, but you get to do this. You get to challenge yourself and see what’s possible. And that, in and of itself, is such an amazing opportunity.