Olympian Jenny Simpson to host group run in North Shore this week

Pittsburgh area runners can cancel their training plans for Thursday. Olympic medalist and retired professional runner Jenny Simpson will host a group run and meet-and-greet that day in Pittsburgh’s North Shore neighborhood.

It’s part of a yearlong challenge Simpson and her husband, Jason, set for themselves — to run in all 50 states in 2025.

Simpson, a three-time Olympian, won bronze in the 1500m during the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro— making her the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the event. Her last race as a professional athlete was the 2024 New York City Marathon.

The 50 states challenge, aptly titled “Run USA,” came about in mid-2023 when Simpson began to realize her professional running career of about 15 years was drawing to a close.

“It’s a big thing to close a chapter like that on your life,” Simpson, 39, told TribLive. “For me personally, just looking at the whole breadth of my running career and what it has meant to me, it felt like I couldn’t just retire one day and then the next day wake up and move into a new chapter of life.

“It felt like I needed some time to process and take it in and transition.”

Simpson and her husband bought an RV and set out with their dogs — Truman and Barkley — to run races and log miles with run clubs in all 50 states. The couple checked their home state, Colorado, off the list the first week of January before traveling to Florida, where Simpson ran in high school.

Pennsylvania, a state Simpson has never visited prior to this week, marks the couple’s 38th stop.

‘Once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing’

Melissa Migliaro, owner of Scott Township-based Migliaro Consulting, reached out to Simpson about helping the Olympian organize a group run in Pittsburgh. About 100 people have registered so far, said Matt Imhoff, director of Pennsylvania race operations for GCXC Race Timing & Management, who is also organizing the event.

“From running to meeting up with friends and family, it’s just been really heartwarming,” Simpson said. “At a time when it’s easy to feel like darkness is swallowing our world and our surrounding context, I feel like Jason and I have been really fortunate that we’ve been out in the world with real people enjoying our country and seeing that there’s a lot of wonderful people everywhere.”

The challenge has led the couple to complete the Mountain Mist 50km ultramarathon in Alabama and the Running of the Reindeer, a race in Alaska that partially coincides with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. They also completed the Dopey Challenge at the Disney World Marathon — which entails racing a 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon on consecutive days.

Jason Simpson, who qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, was excited but surprised his wife wanted to take on the Run USA challenge.

“We had never been camping before, and Jenny hated road trips,” he said with a laugh. “What an incredible experience, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

“Life is short. Why don’t we take the opportunity and the blessings that we have to set aside one year and do this? I was all for it.”

‘The majority of my years of running are still ahead’

Nine months into the challenge, the couple is continuously surprised by the kindness of strangers and fellow runners they have met along the way, Jenny Simpson said.

“For me, being in the high performance lane of sports for so long, I think sometimes your focus can be so narrowly set on trying to be the fastest you can possibly be, but it’s been fun to depart from that and experience running with people that are just getting started,” she said.

“Our sport is so unique and it’s welcoming to everyone, no matter what ability level you are, what age level you are, what experience level you are. I’m really more excited than ever to be someone that calls myself a runner. I just know as long and awesome as my professional career was, the majority of my years of running are still ahead of me.”

The Pittsburgh run will start from Shorty’s Pins and Pints, located at 353 North Shore Drive. Check-in and a meet-and-greet will start at 5:30 p.m. and the run starts at 6:30 p.m. Runners can choose between a three-mile and five-mile route.

Runners are encouraged to sign up for the event on runsignup.com. It is free to attend.