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Post World Champs Jenny Simpson Conference Call Audio Recording
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Post World Champs Jenny Simpson Conference Call Audio Recording provided by New Balance. "Everything went quiet, and everything went still...I really was in a wonderful sense of shock. I was coming down that last 100 meters and I saw the other competitors in my peripheral vision, and they just faded away. I knew I was the first to cross the line but I thought, surely this isn't happening right now. In five seconds someone is going to usher me off the track and say, 'I'm sorry Jenny, they all lapped you, you need to get off the track now.'" Final Transcript
DAN KLORES COMMUNICATIONS: Jenny Barringer Simpson Teleconference September 8, 2011/12:00 p.m. EDT
SPEAKERS Jenny Barringer Simpson Kristen Sullivan Josh Rowe
PRESENTATION
Moderator Welcome to the Jenny Simpson conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Kristen Sullivan.
K. Sullivan Thank you very much, Greg, and thank you all for joining in today. We really, really appreciate you taking the time to join us for something we’re very excited about for this very special press conference for a world champion, Jenny Simpson.
Just to start I just thought it would be appropriate to do a few introductions and then just give you all a little bit of a lay of the land. So what you can expect from the next 30 to 45 minutes, how the press conference will run and Greg gave us a good overview, but just to go a little bit more in detail, first off just introduce myself.
As many of you know and most of you I’ve met and for those I haven’t, hopefully we get to meet in person in the future, I am Kristen Sullivan and I am the global PR manager here at New Balance. I will be again serving as the moderator for the call. So when we do turn it over to Q&A, I’ll be the moderator just fielding the questions and hand them over to Jenny.
With me in that actually calling in from St. Louis is our Integrated Running Marketing Manager, Josh Rowe and Josh joined us a little bit over a year ago and I have to say I work with him day in and day out and it is a privilege. He has completely revitalized the category and he has a passion and energy and a knowledge for this space that really is unmatched. So he’ll be able to share with you a few words. He has the unique privilege of actually being in Daegu to actually see that thrilling victory.
So he’ll be sharing with us some of his thoughts and then introducing Jenny, who is the final person we’ll have on the line as a speaker. And as you know last but not least Jenny is … athlete and the New World Champion in 1,500 meter. And just as a little bit of a background, I won’t steal Josh’s thunder for his intro, but she is calling in from Italy in a small rural town where’s she’s preparing for a race. So the call-in is a little bit tenuous, so if for some reason we lose the connection, just bear with us. Have a little bit of patience and she’ll call right back in, but we’ll keep our fingers and hope everything goes well.
So without further ado, I’ll pass you over to Josh, who will introduce Jenny again and give you a little bit of … and then we’ll hear from Jenny and then we’ll move to some question and answers.
J. Rowe Hello, everyone, and thanks, Kristen. So in one of the most exciting races in American distance running history, Jenny won the 1,500 meters at the IAAF World Championships last week in Daegu, South Korea. She executed her race to perfection putting herself in a great position with 200 meters to go in the race ready to pounce, starting her kick earlier than maybe some people thought she should. She blasted around the last corner taking over the field eventually passing the entire field with about 50 meters to go, holding off her competitors and winning the World Championship to amazement by many and complete awe by Jenny herself.
This is the crowning achievement in already amazing young career for Jenny. Jenny is a holder of five collegiate records. She’s the American record holder in the steeplechase. She’s the number five all-time runner for the 1,500 in the U.S. This is her fourth major track and field championship in her young career. She was seventh in the heat in the world championships in ’07. She was ninth in the Olympic Games in ’08. She was fifth in the world championships in the steeplechase in ’09 and now is the world champion in 2011.
So enough for me, here is our latest World Champion, Jenny Simpson from Rieti, Italy, welcome, Jenny.
J. Simpson Thanks, everyone, for being a part of this and for your interest in track and field and what we’re able to accomplish this week. As far as this goes for me when people talk about being part of something that’s greater than themselves, I feel like this is a perfect example. What I achieved this weekend has been really exciting and kind of shocking for me and a lot of my team. But it’s also been a real humbling experience for me because the joy I have in what I do often comes from being able to share that and know that so many other people are enjoying what I do. And so just the huge influx of congratulations and just support from so many people that have been a part of my life and part of my career, that’s been the greatest joy of this accomplishment.
K. Sullivan Thanks a lot, Jenny. So I think now and I’m glad we’re getting to it early, but I think we’re going to move over to what is probably most important to you guys, the question and answer session. And so I just want to encourage everyone, I know some of you are just interested in listening in, but for those of you who have questions, please go ahead and ask them.
Just as a preface, we have a very eclectic group of media and with everyone from truly track and field writers to more running bloggers, the health and fitness media to some from Jenny’s hometown papers. So we know that the questions will vary, so I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated if it’s a very track specific question, don’t feel like you can’t follow that up with your question more about diet or nutrition or what music Jenny listens to. We really want you to get the content you need for your readers or you listener or whoever it may be, your viewer.
We really want to make this a productive session for you, so feel free to ask as many questions as you have. We really have allotted plenty of time today in order to field them all, so don’t be shy. If you have follow-up questions, know that you can ask them. It’s not one question per person or anything like that. We want to make it a robust session and the goal is really to provide you with as much content as possible.
And keep in mind, listen in because I do think there are such varied roles that somebody may ask a question you never thought of and it may lead to a story angle or a different feature piece that you never thought you could have done. So I definitely encourage any and all questions. I think I’ll turn it over now to Greg, our operator, who will explain to you guys how you can use your phone to enter the queue.
Moderator Your first question comes from the line of Larry Eder from the Running Network.
L. Eder Jenny, first of all congratulations on your performance. It was really a lot of fun to watch you. I wanted to know—what was the last thing that your coach said to you before the race?
J. Simpson That’s a really good question. The last thing my coach probably said to me was stay out of trouble. All of us in the 1,500 meters was probably I don’t know this for sure, but it’s probably the most problem to have pile-ups and have falls and have incidences. And there’s how good everyone is and so that means how close everyone is going to be throughout the race and it proves to be that way in our final. And so that’s probably the last thing she told me, going out, having fun. I don’t have to be reminded that that I love what I do and so probably the last thing she told me was just to stay out trouble.
L. Eder As a quick follow-up, tell us how physical that race was because it looked it pretty close most of the ways.
J. Simpson Almost everyone in that field is capable of running what ended up being the winning time. And so what that means is that everybody is within striking distance with 400 meters to go, so it’s definitely physical because the group was so tightly packed.
Another thing that add to some of the physical ness of the race is that what’s unique in the world championships is that we run three rounds. And so it adds another element to the race that we wouldn’t experience just going out and running hard in one event. This is the third race in five days, so a lot of people are tired. People are excited about getting to the final and there’s a lot at stake. So it was definitely a tactical and aggressive race, but that’s always to be expected in the world championships.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Peter Gambaccini from Runners World.
P. Gambaccini Jenny, we talked before and you talked to other people about the kind of last year you had, which seem to be coming around in the later part of the summer. Do you think this is an example of you really, this race just falling exactly at the right time in your return to sharpness this summer?
J. Simpson I strongly agree that things happen for a reason, so my season got delayed and as a result of that, I think that maybe that worked in my favor that the world championships fell right in the line of the part of my training where I was coming to the best weeks of my training. And so I wasn’t hanging on— P. Gambaccini Hello? Ms. Simpson, are you still on the line? I heard a literal crash here.
Moderator Her phone line is still connected.
P. Gambaccini It was going so well, too. Who else is on the line?
K. Sullivan I’m on, Kristen.
J. Rowe I’m on, too.
P. Gambaccini Okay, I thought everybody was gone.
J. Rowe I think it’s normal, Peter.
P. Gambaccini No, no I’ve done interviews like this and you have to call back four times.
J. Rowe It’s just an out of the way place. She’ll call back in.
P. Gambaccini I was talking to somebody in Moldova and he crashed five times. All right. How have you been? Congratulations to you on having your ….
J. Rowe It’s been very exciting.
P. Gambaccini Yes, absolutely.
J. Rowe What a great race.
P. Gambaccini A lot of it is actually so we’re talking … in the finals.
J. Simpson Hello, sorry about that. I’ll give whoever that was the opportunity to repeat their question if that’s possible.
P. Gambaccini Yes, we were talking about the fact that this may have come around at the time when you were really just starting to reach significant strength and regain the sharpness that you’ve had in past years.
J. Simpson Yes, I remember I was saying I come from a distance background and so having a lot of strengths I think with that helped when you do have to take a little bit of time off like I did earlier in the season because I got sick. It helps you hold on to some of your fitness. And then going through the three rounds I think I was just really strong and like you said, the sharpness just came at the right time of the year for me.
P. Gambaccini And this is one … to your questions, but did you think—you’re in the race and you’re in tight pack. Did you feel that a race like a 405 race might be best for your metal chances in terms of you having the full kick that you have? Was it something like a 402 that kind of race everybody running at that level, would that have … add much to your advantage?
J. Simpson I really felt like I was prepared for any way that the race went out. I have proven myself to be really fast in the 1,500 in the past. I wasn’t able to showcase that yet this year, but I know that I physically have the ability to run up front during a really fast race. But the world championship by their nature of the rounds I think that it seldom produces a whole pack of people that run those really fast times.
And so I anticipated because of the way the …has been won throughout the reason, that there was going to be a group of people there at the end. And so it really did play out that way, but I was prepared to keep contact with the nice weather … went out at 64 pace the whole way.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Brian Metzler from Running Times.
B. Metzler Just a couple of years ago at your last year at CU you became the fastest shorter distance runner and you were surprised by your speed. Talk about how you developed as a miler and what you’ve done on the … to further what you started at CU.
J. Simpson My current coach is Julie Benson and she was the person who I really believed saw the greatest potential for me in the 1,500 meters. I moved to her as a coach greatly because she has a lot of experience in the 1,500 meters as an athlete. She was part of the Olympic team in 1996 and also because she has a lot of experience coaching middle distances.
So coming from a distance background, I know what it’s like to go out and run a lot of miles. But she really highly specialized and that middle distance discipline and what it takes to take somebody with a lot of strength and infuse those really important tactical skills and the type of speed you need to be able to close.
So I’ve been doing a lot of workouts that I’m unaccustomed to and I think it puts my body maybe six to eight months to even just make that transition. But the stimulus is obviously really successful and important thing for me to go through and 18 months later I’m doing that tutelage. I feel like I’m very much a similar athlete as I was coming up through my college years, but definitely much more sharp and much more tactically and mentally prepared for specifically the 1,500-meter race.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Phillip Hersh from the Chicago Tribune.
P. Hersh Good afternoon, Jenny, congratulations, a couple of questions. One obviously you are a great steeplechaser within six seconds of everybody else who has ever run the thing except for Galkina. Do you have any thoughts about going back to that? Your PR came from 2009, you had a whole bunch of other stuff happening and the year after that, you began working on the 15. Are there any thoughts to going back to the steeple or are you a metric miler these days?
J. Simpson I really enjoy the steeple and I had a lot of momentum going into the 2009 season when I was able to produce that really great PR in the final. It’s an event that I think is a large part to just the character of my racing style now. It’s very dynamic and it’s the type of race where a lot of times you have to take control because people don’t run in packs as much as they do like in the 15 or in the 5K.
And so returning to it would be a really exciting and fun thing for me, but it’s important to me in my career to do what’s best for my body and to assess for making teams and earning medals. And so that’s a really serious discussion I’m going to have to have with my coach, especially as we entertain what we’re going to do for 2012, which is a really important year obviously. So I’ll sit down with my coach and we’ll make that decision over the fall. But one thing that will be different in the coming year from past years is that I’ll probably make that decision a lot earlier and then highly specialize in what I choose to race, whether it be the steeple or the 1,500 meters and do less … the other distances.
P. Hersh And if I can just follow up, both you and Matt said when your first major international championship meets in that event, and yet both of you ran remarkably calmly and coolly and stayed out of trouble. There’s been all this talk about resurgence in American distance running and the ability to run in championship races, other than just going fast in an invitational is a big part of that. Can you sense, is this a totally individual or can you sense that there’s a generation of people that are just much more comfortable in that situation than they ever were before?
J. Simpson I think at every level in U.S. running, the middle distances are getting more competitive. I think that that’s really helping people like Matt and I to understand what task is ahead of us when we get to world championships. The personal bests in the records at the NCAAP level are faster than they’ve been. They’re taken huge leaps in the last five years, as well as at the U.S. level, making the team is more difficult now in middle distances than it’s been in a long time. And so I think that just raising the bar at every level is something that has really helped Matt and I.
On another note, though, I would be the first to be watch both races and say I think Matt gets it a lot faster than I do. And I think he’s a lot more gifted tactically than I am because going through all those tall rooms and going through all those rounds, it’s really stressful and difficult thing to do and this is my fourth year out. And even though it’s a different event, I have a lot of experience going through the stresses that you encounter at the world championship. And so knowing that I’ve done it four times and this is Matt’s first shot at it I think he’s an incredibly calm and talented young man and I think he has an incredibly great future.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Jessica Sebor from Women’s Running Magazine.
J. Sebor Hello, Jenny, congratulations on your win and thanks so much for taking the time to speak to us all today. My question was if your recent performance has affected your plans or your mindset at all going into the Olympic year.
J. Simpson The Olympics are certainly on the horizon, but it’s something that I think every athlete tries to take the seasons one at a time, and a perfect example is I have a race in the next few days and so this season hasn’t even concluded yet. But that being said, the second you step off the track from Beijing, people are already asking you about London.
So what I’m going to do and what I’m going to focus on and how I’m training for 2012 is something that starting taking shape at end of the season in 2008. And so I’m getting stronger, I’m getting better. And so the overarching plan is already set in place, but the specifics are probably going to become more concrete as we get closer to that season starting.
J. Sebor Then just one more question before I let someone else go, you were crossing that line I think you definitely if you weren’t already became a hero in the eyes of a lot of young girls. I’m just wondering who did you look up to growing up and did you call on any of that inspiration during your race or in your training leading up to it?
J. Simpson Yes, I’ve been really close to my dad my whole life. He’s somebody that’s always been really inspiring to me and somebody that I feel like I’ve always been able to look up to whenever there was a challenge ahead of him or something difficult. I feel like my dad has been somebody standing on top of the podium in front of thousands of people, but he always conducts himself with an enormous amount of dignity and that’s something that I respected in him ever since I was a child. So having that example in my life and just knowing what dignity and what grace looks like has been a wonderful thing for me as a human being and throughout my career.
But actually in the race I did not have a really great relationship with my younger sister growing up. We were just typical young girls that are a similar age and we had a very normal sibling rivalry probably growing up. But she and I have become much, much closer as we’ve gotten older. And so specifically in the race who I was thinking of, it would definitely be my younger sister.
She is serving in the U.S. Army right now and she is just an incredible example to me of how if you’re willing to work hard and you have a dream even if you’re not doing it front of thousands of people like I have the privilege of doing, you can lead a really productive and wonderful and happy life. I’m really proud of her for demonstrating that for me.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Doug Bender from ESPN.
D. Bender I wonder what message you have for high school cross country and track runners who have—it’s been a generation where there’s been no gold medals at the global level and now you’ve given people a precedent for that. What sort of message would you have for the high school crowd?
J. Simpson My message I think all along not only to other people, but to myself is that I don’t do anything in my everyday life or my training that someone else can’t be doing as well. So I don’t have any special equipment or any special gurus that have answers to problems that other people struggle with. I wake up every single morning. I run every single day. I do the stretching and I take care of my body, but I don’t have any secrets.
I think it’s a lot of consistency and knowing what you want and going after it. And so I really hope that my accomplishment especially at this level is something that can really encourage and inspire other people that if you’re really reaching out to excellence, sometimes it’s just getting up in the morning and getting it done and just doing that day in and day out because that’s really what I’ve done.
People ask me if I have very specific training regimens or eating or all that stuff and certainly I try to make really great decisions along the way, but there’s no secret to it. It’s just a lot of years and a lot of getting up and getting out the door when it doesn’t feel ….
D. Bender Just as a quick follow-up you mentioned in the post-race interview you are the first kid who’s gone through the whole footlocker process who’s won a gold medal at a championship like this. And yet probably every one of those kids dreams of winning a gold medal. Do you think that it becomes more realistic to kids now that someone like you has done that for the United States?
J. Simpson I really hope so, especially the running community is a really close knit and kind of niche sport group of people. Within our group there’s always the feeling that if you’re really good, the younger you are, the better you are when you’re really young, the less likely you can keep it up. And so there’s this whole burnout fear. And I really hope that I get to break that spell for everyone that you can be really good in high school and really good in college and continue to get better every single year.
One of the things I’m most proud of is that ever since the first year I started running, I run a PR every single year of my career. And I’ve been hurt in that five years that weren’t really a plan to work from, but like I said I think it’s just getting out the door on the days that it’s fun and on the days that it’s not fun and putting in the work. If you’re good as a young high school person or if you get into it your last year in college, you can reach the highest height no matter when you start.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Steve Louise from the Orlando Sentinel.
S. Louise I’ve been assigned a story to do on you about how a girl from central Florida became a world champion. So I’m going to go right to the source and ask you—how does a girl from central Florida become a world champion?
J. Simpson I think one of the most important things is that I’ve always, and I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been surrounded by really positive and encouraging people and on the top of that list is my high school coach. Jay Getty is somebody that I first met when I was a freshman in high school. He coached me all the way through high school in track and field. Beginning my career with somebody that is funny and doesn’t put a lot of pressure on his athletes, but at the same time expects a certain level of commitment I think that he’s the epitome of somebody that appreciates the athlete that isn’t necessarily the most talented, but is willing to work the hardest. I felt like I fell into that category part way through high school.
And so having somebody like that and then knowing that he’s continued to not push me, but just be a really encouraging part of my life, it’s kept me in consistency and continuity in my career just knowing that all the way to the roots at the beginning of it all there’s been positive input into my career.
S. Louise If I could ask you other thing, when you graduated from Oviedo, realistically in your mind what did you see yourself doing in terms of track moving forward? Obviously, you were going to Colorado, but beyond that, what was your plan for yourself that you saw that you thought would be reasonable to accomplish?
J. Simpson I left Florida to go to Colorado, I was surprised. I was definitely naive in high school about what the collegiate running scene was like. And so when I left to go Colorado, I just wanted to work my way up to being the best person on that team.
I think every time I’ve been introduced to new team situations, that’s been my goal is to really be a leader on the team, be the best person on the team and really take in the best practices of all the people around me. And so I think that that’s been a really great way for me personally to attack everything that I’ve gone after because at Colorado it’s an incredible team to try and be one of the best people on. And then making my first U.S. team trying to be the best person on my U.S. team and then all the way up until you find yourself on the top of a podium at the world championships and you wonder, man, where did the time go and how did I get here.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Austin Filby from Olympic Year.
A. Filby Two questions, one specifically on the race itself and then a much broader one. Going back to the race at about 550 meters to go, Morgan Uceny went down and I believe you were behind and had to step over her. Where you so zoned in you didn’t even realize that it your fellow American in the final and still have you guys gotten a chance to talk afterwards and what kind of words of encouragement has she had for you?
J. Simpson I talked to my coach about this all the time that when I’m on the track I feel like it’s just bodies. I don’t recognize who’s which person and from what country, which helps me mentally in the race. And so when Morgan went down, I really had no idea. In fact it wasn’t until I was in drug testing around an hour after the race was over that I realized it was Morgan who was one of the ones who was a victim of that fall. And so it was upsetting and it’s never a fun thing to watch one of the people you care about and one of the people that’s on your team to suffer something like that, especially someone like Morgan, who had such an exciting season leading up to this point.
But I did have a really good opportunity to see her. The next day we caught each other in a hallway and I definitely have to say she’s an incredibly gracious person and was I felt was genuinely happy for me in what I was able to accomplish and had a really great perspective. What she said to me was that this is part of racing and this is why we do it. You never really know what to expect and she just had a really great grip on the fact that there’s always another race. She’s going to be here I believe in Rieti this weekend and I absolutely wish her the best.
A. Filby Awesome, thank you. And lastly you mentioned earlier that the running community is very niche. It’s very close, very unique group of people. Your win in Daegu heading in to London next year and as the public begins to become more aware of what U.S. track and field athletes are doing, what kind of crossover do you think your story of winning the gold being the first American female to win it since Mary Decker did? What kind of crossover appeal do you think that has for the general public that maybe isn’t a part of the running community like you are and like many others are?
J. Simpson I live in a small town just north of Colorado Springs and I hope that I’m a very approachable person and if people have the opportunity to witness my circumstances and where I live and how I train, I think I lead a really normal life. And so I hope that the way that that translates to other people is that it doesn’t take you to question yourself in some crazy and secluded place.
And people that accomplish these things and not just myself, but other Olympians are really normal people. And we have really supportive families and lots of groups of people that care about us and support us in what we’re doing. And that while this is a really large operation getting somebody like myself to the starting line, there’s a lot of people involved. That it’s just like in my opinion it’s like it’s a lot of other things.
There are corporations and there’s farming and there’s all kinds of other things where it’s a huge community of people working together for one goal. And so I hope that that’s what translate is that I’m just a very normal person working in a small town and trying to do something that represents our country in a very positive way.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Linda Robertson from Miami Herald.
L. Robertson I have a couple questions. Let me start off by asking you about what you think the results at World does for the morale and goals of the U.S. track and field team going into 2012, those women and men? I was wondering if you guys talk about team goals, if that’s something that comes up in conversation or what sort of team unity, if any, there is in such a group.
J. Simpson There’s nothing like being on team U.S.A. We always have a big team meeting where everyone comes and we all talk about what we want to accomplish as a team. But then we also talk about people that are here that may not necessarily think that they have a true shot at a medal need to change their mindset because that’s what we’re all here for. And we have U.S.A. across our chests and that’s an incredible opportunity and something that we all want to communicate to everyone that we do that with a lot of pride.
And so those meetings have always been really inspiring to me and it’s exciting because they’re delivered by our coaches at the venue. So for example this year it was by head coach in Daegu. And those people are often goal medalists themselves. And so it’s just a really inspiring thing to have these people that have come before us and accomplished the highest goals before us and they stand in front of us and tell us what is possible. And so we certainly have team goals. We talk about medal counts.
But then on the flip side of it at the end after our races have concluded there’s an athlete lounge where every medalist comes back and they do a toast and a salute to every person’s medal. So there’s an incredible sense of community and there’s an incredible fraternity among all the people that compete for this team. It’s just a wonderful thing to be a part of.
And going toward London, I definitely think that this has rallied the community. I think it’s very exciting that Matt and I are able to take something back to the United States that hasn’t been there in a long time. And I really hope that this really rallies the sentiment amongst distance runners that we deserve to be included in that medal count.
L. Robertson I wonder if you could elaborate a little bit more also on growing up as a distance runner in Florida. I live in Miami and it’s not the most friendly environment for distance running in terms of heat and flatness. So I was just wondering how you got into the sport and how you were able to excel in Florida.
J. Simpson I definitely know what you’re talking about with uninviting, just the weather and some of the limitations on trails and … places and so forth. So there’s a store in downtown Orlando called Track Shack. They put on a whole series of road races throughout the year. And that was my real introduction to racing on a larger level was running these little road races throughout Orlando. That was my introduction to the running community. I had run in elementary school and middle school, but the road races were really when I discovered that there’s a whole community of people that do this. It’s not just something you do in PE class or something.
And I really loved the sense of camaraderie and that everybody finishes the 5K and at the end you all stand around and eat bagels and orange slices. And so that part was just very exciting to me as a young person and making friends and just seeing the same people week after week. But I think it’s something that really helped me is the fact that in Florida, there’s not great weather all the time. The trails aren’t always perfect. They’re just very flat.
I remember preparing for Footlocker where it’s much more hilly than Florida. My coach took me to a parking garage and that’s where we practiced hills. So it’s definitely not—it doesn’t have the same kind variety of terrain, but having those challenges I think has really prepared me in the future to go to any sort of weather conditions to go in any sort of course and just know I faced these challenges before and I was just fine. And so it’s less intimidating moving forward knowing that I’ve had these challenges all the way from the beginning.
L. Robertson Let me ask you one more thing. Can you compare the steeplechase and the 1,500 and maybe even mention what you like and dislike about each one?
J. Simpson So the steeplechase is certainly in my opinion less tactical than the 15. A lot of times you have a lot more room to run your own race and do your own race plan just by the nature of the fact we have to jump over things and people’s arms are going everywhere. And so people generally give each other a little bit more room.
In the 1,500 I had to learn very quickly that you can’t put daylight between you and the next person because if you do when they decide to go, they’re gone before you have a chance to react. So that’s one of the biggest differences I found between the two events.
Something that’s similar is the fact that the gear teams and how should I put this, there’s no rhythm to either event in my opinion. The steeplechase is broken clearly by the fact that there are barriers in the way. One very quickly goes from running 72-second laps to 58-second laps to close or something similar. The 1,500 meter is similar in the way that people speed up and slow down and speed up and slow down especially in a tactical race like the final at the world championships. The first 100 it’s fast and then everyone slowed down and then the last 200 meters was really fast, so the inconsistency of pace is similar.
What I love the most about the steeplechase is that it’s very unpredictable. There are a lot of challenges. There are 35 barriers throughout the race, so it’s very unpredictable how it will play out.
And that’s also my favorite thing about the 1,500 meters is that often the level of competition is everybody is similarly talented when it comes to their PRs and their seasoned best times. And so a lot of times it’s just whoever has the edge that day and can really be the strongest in the last lap and it has a lot to do with position, too. So the unpredictable-ness of that nature of both races has always been a draw for me.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Joe Garland from New York Running.
J. Garland Somewhat following up on what you just said, could you us talk through the first 200 meters of the final where you slipped right to the back in the first 100 and you shot around to the front by the 200 and then you drifted back into the belt. What was going through your mind when you were doing that?
J. Simpson So the first 100 meters is always where everyone punches the first 100 and gets out. Coming from a distance background that’s something that was new to me when I came to the 15 and so everyone got out really hard and I got out with the group. And then everyone planned on the …, I started by moving my way up to the front like you just said. That I think set the tone of the race for me personally. I went up to the front and I did gradually drift towards the back. A lot of 1,500 meters are that way where you end up in the front and you move to the back and then you have to swing wide and go back to the front.
But I think that move right at the beginning just was it more for me than it was for any sort of good tactical move for the race. It was just me saying I belong up here. I’m going to keep contact with the front and I’m going to take a chance here. But then as I filtered towards the back and ended up on the inside, I felt very comfortable there. I felt like the front group was not running away and they were staying right there within striking distance and so I did feel comfortable staying there throughout most of the rest of the race instead of moving out and moving up again.
K. Sullivan I’m just going to hop in. I’ve gotten a couple of emails. Greg, do you mind just explaining again how people can hop into the queue?
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Jim Gruet from Running Times.
J. Gruet Just to follow up on the Olympic question, how does your victory change your expectations or pressure or whatever; and then also in terms of how this season went, any tweaks or changes in your build-up for next year or you figure if it’s not broke, don’t fix it?
J. Simpson I’m a big believer in keeping things as consistent as possible and so what we did this season worked really well. I think the biggest change will be that ending the season as long as the next few races go well, I’ll be ending the season healthy and so that’s an exciting change from last year. So I’ll have the fall to really focus on building the strength that I was able to run off of in college and so returning to that part of what worked well while I was in college that I wasn’t able to do the season before because I was hurt.
And then going into London like I said before, I just want to have a plan early in the season. I was to highly specialize in what I do decide to race. And then what I am focusing on, I feel like what this world championship changes for me is that winning a medal is no longer just this figurative thing out there that I’m hoping to maybe someday accomplish. I have a medal sitting in my hotel room and that just seems so unreal to me. And so what it changes is that going into London I think I have so much more faith and so much more belief that it’s possible and that I belong in whatever race I do run, I belong in the demeanor of training with a purposed medal.
Moderator Your next question comes from the line of David Monte from Race Results Weekly.
D. Monte Jenny, you have your medal, you’re a gold medalist, fantastic, but I think maybe you threw out there a really fast race. Your best time this year is 4:03:54. Is that what you’ll be doing in Rieti?
J. Simpson Absolutely, I’m really excited for this. I really feel like my season is continuing to come around and I’m getting better and I’m getting stronger with every workout and there’s no better workout than racing. And so what I did at the world championship was I think just making me better and better with every race with confidence along with the physical strength, so I’m excited about this weekend. I’ve had a really great week with my husband with a little bit of downtime and just focusing on the next task at hand. So I’m excited to celebrate, but I’m putting all of that off a little bit, so than I can a couple of really fast times under my belt in the next few weeks.
D. Monte And just a quick follow-up, the United States easily won the most medals than any country at the world championships, but the media turnout at the event, that wasn’t particularly good and the sport still struggles for popularity in this country. How does that feel and how do you explain that as an athlete?
J. Simpson That’s kind of conundrum for me because almost everybody who exercises runs. And so it’s surprising to me that somebody that can so easily understand the actual sport that we’re engaging in, you have to get a team together to go play football or play baseball, or you at least have to have somebody to catch the ball when you’re playing catch. But everyone can throw on a pair of running shoes and head out and go for a run and understand at some level what our training is like every day.
So I think just communicating that message to people that we’re going out for runs just like they are everyday; we’re just doing it at a different level and a different level of fitness and commitment. I hope that that message continues to gain momentum and that we can gain more followers of our sport.
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