Jenny Simpson, arguably the best female miler in U.S. history, plans to make the New York City Marathon on Sunday her last professional race.
“I’m really focused on this just like any other race,” Simpson told LetsRun.com on Thursday. “For me, personally, there’s no amount of, oh, the enormity of my career has to be expressed in this experience. I really don’t feel any of that pressure at all. I’m going to race New York, I’m going to try and beat as many women as possible, and then three steps past the finish line, maybe I’ll start to kind of feel like, oh, I wonder what retirement will feel like.”
Simpson, 38, said her goal is to break 2 hours, 30 minutes in Sunday’s marathon, where the winner’s time will likely be between 2:20 and 2:25.
Simpson last raced on the track at the Tokyo Olympic Trials in 2021 (placing 10th in the 1500m), then moved to the roads.
In her marathon debut, Simpson dropped out of the Paris Olympic Trials on Feb. 3 before the 19th mile. She then ran the Boston Marathon on April 15 in 2:31:39, placing 18th.
In her track career, Simpson made her first Olympic team in 2008 in the 3000m steeplechase, then in 2012 and 2016 in the 1500m, earning a bronze medal in Rio. She is the lone U.S. woman to win a world 1500m title (2011) or an Olympic 1500m medal.
From 2007 through 2019, Simpson finished in the top three in one of the 1500m, 5000m or 3000m steeplechase at all 13 annual USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships.
Simpson also announced Thursday that she and husband Jason are planning to travel in an RV to all 50 states in 2025 for a “running-focused exploration of America.”
“I look back on the younger version of myself, and I think, I could have never imagined it would last this long,” Simpson told LetsRun. “So what a privilege.”
