This past weekend in Boston, Massachusetts the spotlight of the running community was on the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. If you are not a member of the running community (you should probably get on that) then you should know that this meet is one of the most prestigious meets of the indoor season. The meet lived up to the expectations. Records fell and laps were miscounted.
One of the highlights of the meet was the breaking of the world record in the indoor 4×800 meter relay. The U.S. Allstars team, which consisted of two pros who train here at the university of central Florida, Duane Solomon and Richard Jones, ran a time of 7:13.11. The old record was 7:13.94- what may not seem like a huge gap is considered a big drop in time.
While maybe not a positive highlight, Jenny Simpson’s race garnered a lot of attention. Simpson, a native of Oviedo, won the silver medal in the 1500 at the 2013 world championship and this weekend she faced off with an old college rival, 2012 Olympic 10,000-meter silver medalist Sally Kipyego, in the two-mile. As the finish of the race came closer it looked as though Simpson was not on her game. A true athlete, she did not give up. Moving from third to first with an impressive surge she looked strong only to stop with 200 meters to go. She had miscounted her laps and thought she was finished with the race. Upon realizing her mistake she tried to take back first place but ended up in second with a still impressive new personal best time of 9:26.19.
With grace Simpson laughed off the miscalculation. “Now I’ve given up the right to laugh at anyone else who’s ever done that”