Over the summer before my freshman year of college, I lived out of a suitcase for two weeks. My family and I drove from place to place in a small, cramped, rental car during our west coast excursion. For the first leg of the journey we flew into Phoenix, Arizona and trekked up to the Grand Canyon. Next we drove a long way to San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We concluded our vacation with a pit stop in Eugene, Oregon to see the Olympic Trials. Eugene, otherwise known as Track Town USA. We ended up getting tickets to see the Trials on the very last day.
I was just returning to my hotel after eating dinner at a local pizza restaurant in the downtown area of Eugene. The sky was overcast and my hotel was surrounded by tall, dark evergreens. Rain had just started to pour down. With some down time, I decided to do some laundry with my mom. Walking down the freezing cold hallway, taking the dim lit elevator down two floors to the tiny laundry room.
When we arrived there was already a couple folding clothes. Standing patiently as my mom threw the dirty clothes into the washer, it dawned on me that I recognized the petit, pony-tailed woman who smiled at me as she folded New Balance running shirts. Without trying to stare, I noticed she wore a grey oversized shirt that said, “GO,” for the Boston Marathon. She confirmed my hunch when I saw all her t-shirts, shorts, and socks had New Balance logos on them: it was Jenny Simpson.
Without looking weird, I tried to get my moms attention to look over at her. I nodded my head and then resorted to thrusting it so my mom would look in Simpson’s direction. My mom and I exchanged a smile when I saw that she too recognized this strong woman. Bravely, my mom spoke, and asked her, “Are you…” and Jenny answered back very cheerfully, “I’m Jenny!” I can honestly say I have never met a sweeter person in my life. She posed for a picture with me in front of the washer and dryer machines and asked me about my running and college plans.
The next day she went on to win the 1500 m race and then just last month she grabbed bronze in Rio at the Olympics for the 1500 m. In fact, she’s the first American woman to ever place in that event. I will never forget the day that I was casually going to do laundry and bumped into an Olympian!
