NEW YORK—Jenny Simpson didn’t truly consider herself a miler until right before she left home to race at the world championships.
She comes back as the 1,500-meter gold medalist.
At the last worlds in 2009, Simpson posted the best finish by an American woman in what was then her specialty, the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Then a leg injury last year kept her from training in that event.
“It wasn’t that I really believed I’m a miler,” Simpson said Thursday. “It was just the hand that was dealt to me.”
But something changed in her last workout before leaving for Daegu, South Korea, a grueling session in the field house surrounded by the cadets at the Air Force Academy, where Simpson is a volunteer coach.
“That was really the moment where I thought, ‘This is right for me,'” she said.
The former Jenny Barringer, who got married last October, was joined by her coach and her husband at the world championships. There wasn’t much chance to commemorate and contemplate becoming the first American woman since Mary Slaney—then Mary Decker—in 1983 to win that title.
“I didn’t really want to go into full-fledged celebrating this moment until I was home,” said Simpson, who hasn’t been back to Monument, Colo., since Aug. 15. “I still haven’t seen any of the papers, any of the headlines, or read any of the articles. I’m excited to indulge and enjoy all of that.”
She first had to hop on planes to Italy, Belgium and Morocco for races before returning to the United States on Tuesday, flying into New York to run this weekend’s Fifth Avenue Mile.
Simpson asked her parents to come in from Oklahoma to meet her in Manhattan.
“What better for them to experience the emotions of the moment than to be here in New York City and see the presentation of everything?” she said.
The 25-year-old Colorado alum has experienced being introduced as a world champion, but it was in another language or in the midst of other distractions.
Not at the starting line of a race in a classic American setting.
“It’s going to be really weird,” Simpson said. “I really hope that I don’t get emotional on the line or anything. I hope that road in front of me keeps me grounded. … It’s going to be like being on the podium again.”
She’s a reigning world champ heading into an Olympic year, perfect timing to rack up endorsements.
“Winning it in the 1,500 meters, it’s such a distance that people can identify with,” Simpson said. “I feel really fortunate that if you’re going to come home a gold medalist, the 100 meters and the mile are the two things people really understand.”
She’ll run the mile through the streets of New York against a strong field Saturday that includes fellow top Americans Shannon Rowbury and Morgan Uceny.
In her first full summer of racing in Europe, Simpson realized how emotionally drained she was after winning at worlds. She finished 13th in the 1,500 in the last Diamond League meet.
“My runs were going well; my workouts were going well. Then I would go out to warm up for a race and I would just feel kind of fatigued, but in a good way,” Simpson said. “I wasn’t disappointed; I wasn’t upset about anything. What more can you ask for after a gold medal at the world championships?”
