Jenny Simpson continues to be one of the biggest standout stars in the track and field world. This past week she broke 4 minutes in the 1500 for the 10th time in her career at a Diamond League race in Rabat. It was her second race of the season and what we would call in the business, a pretty damn good rust buster. Her dominance in this event has stretched nearly a decade. Her first sub 4?
In 2009. Outrageous.
Simpson is an absolute machine, breaking 4 every season for the last 7 years. She has dominated the track and field world for longer than I have known how to read (please don’t crunch those numbers). With this past week’s race she proved that she is still at the apex of her career, and will almost certainly be going her 4th Olympic games in Tokyo 2020. She’s amazing, an inspiration to all young athletes, and an absolute killer of my hopes and dreams.
Now before the Internet eats me alive, it’s not a jealousy thing, I swear. It’s the fact that she’s proving that distance runners can continue to compete at peak performance level into their 30s. This is terrible news for me, and every recently retired post-collegiate runner. There is now literally zero excuse left as to why I didn’t go pro and shoot for the Olympics. No longer when someone asks if I thought about running post-collegiately, can I use the old excuse of, “Well the trials fell on a weird year while I was still in college, and I would have been way too old by the next games.” On top of Jenny’s continued dominance, she qualified for the Olympics as a collegiate athlete! She single handedly ruins any self-aggrandizing image I could ever project. Just let me enjoy my 5 seconds of fame at the family barbecue like every other bygone college athlete, and dream for a minute that I could have made it to the next level.
At this point, I could go into the work force for 4 years, quit, sit around doing nothing for a year, and still have a full 4 years to get back to peak running shape. Now I will always have the Brett Favre mindset; if I could just lace up those victories one more time, maybe magic could happen. Now I have to wait a full ten years before I can be a well-adjusted adult and let this dream die. Thanks Jenny.
Now before I get even more flack, I know Jenny Simpson is a 3 time world medalist, bronze Olympic medalist, multiple NCAA record and American record holder, whereas I was at best, a middle to above average collegiate runner. But hey, part of being a good runner is having a disproportionately big ego, so let me dream, I apparently have 10 more years to do it.
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