Having spent part of her winter break dominating the sport of snowshoe running, veteran athlete Jackie Hering says she is now looking forward to preparing for what will be her 16th year on the competitive triathlon circuit.
The 41-year-old American enjoyed double success in the days leading up to Christmas, as she secured wins in both the World Snowshoe 10km Championship and a 5km US National race, making a welcome return to the winter sport that she has enjoyed since first taking part in 2012.
Mixing her traditional end-of-season triathlon downtime with competing at the three-day event in snowy Wisconsin has served to whet the appetite for another campaign, which she says will once again be focused on the IRONMAN Pro Series.
A successful 2025 campaign
Last year saw her win twice – at IRONMAN Cairns and 70.3 Louisville – while she also achieved podium finishes in three other 70.3 races at Oceanside (2nd), St George (3rd) and Santa Cruz (2nd).
In amongst her snowshoe success, Hering also had time to plot her season ahead – and speaking on her YouTube channel, she revealed there will be one major change to her roster of events from previous campaigns.
While she will start as she usually does with a 70.3, there are plans to hit a full-distance IRONMAN earlier in the season than usual, as she looks to give her season more fluidity.
“I can now fully kick into training for 2026, and I’m very much ready to do that,” she said. “I’m excited for the year ahead. I am going to focus on the Pro Series again, because I love that. I think it’s fun.
‘I like to start the year with a 70.3’
“I am pretty sure that I will be kicking off my year with some racing in the US, and I’m excited to get down and check out the new race in Little Elm, Texas. I really like starting the year with a 70.3.
“After Little Elm, we will head to Oceanside, and then I’m going to do IRONMAN Texas. I do really like the run course there, and I just want to get an IRONMAN under my belt a little earlier in the year than I have done in the last couple of years.
“After Texas, I am going to IRONMAN Hamburg and then the Boise 70.3. We’ll then have to see how things are shaking out. What I experienced last year was that it doesn’t always go as planned, and you have to leave space for flexibility. Getting an IRONMAN in early will allow me plenty of space for that flexibility.”
While she clearly enjoyed her snowshoe experience once again, it very nearly cost her dear, as she picked up an injury that could have been so much worse.
Snowshoe injury concerns
“After La Quinta, I got into the snowshoe running again because we had good conditions here. I’ve always been snowshoe running. It’s something I do every winter when there’s good snow,” she said. “And we had the Snowshoe World Championships and Nationals taking place over the same weekend in Wisconsin on December 19th, 20th, and 21st.
“Unfortunately, I fell down on the second day of training, getting ready on the snowshoes, and landed square on a rock, right on my kneecap. It just seems like I only really bruised it, but it was extremely painful 24/7.
“I was waking up in the night, and I was a bit concerned. So I was doing a mix of resting and laser treatments and just taping it up to support it. I made it to the snowshoe races and kind of toughed it out with the help of KT tape, lidocaine, and Advil, and I just kind of got through it, but honestly, it hurt really bad.”
Having started her first professional triathlon at St George in 2011, Hering is one of the most experienced athletes in the pro ranks and has continued to deliver a string of impressive results with every passing year.
‘I’m not interested in racing and doing a crappy job’
Her goals for 2026 are simply to continue enjoying herself… but she accepts the enjoyment will only come if she can continue to get the results she craves.
“Heading into 2026, my goals are kind of the same as last year. I really just want to enjoy my job,” she said. “I have been doing this a long time, and I’m going to keep going as long as I enjoy it and as long as I feel good.
“And honestly, I will probably keep going as long as I’m getting good results, because I just can’t imagine a world where I would keep going if I were getting crappy results.
“It’s just me; I’m not interested in racing and doing a crappy job. So if the results go down the tube, probably I’ll be done racing.”
