As recently as New Year’s, steeplechaser Emma Coburn wasn’t sure she would be healthy enough to race in the Rio Olympics.

She certainly wasn’t running. An Achilles injury she had sustained a year before was persistently bothering her — and despite time off and rest, there was no sign it was healing. In the fall, she could barely string together a few days of training before she was forced to stop running and cross-train.

On Saturday at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., a mere five months after some of the darkest moments in her professional career, the worry and apprehension dissolved.

The former University of Colorado distance standout crushed the American 3,000-meter steeplechase record, running 9 minutes, 10.76 seconds to break teammate Jenny Simpson’s mark of 9:12.50, set in 2009.

“There were many moments that I didn’t believe in myself, and I didn’t believe I would be in one piece in 2016,” Coburn told The Denver Post. “It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve been through. To get through it on the other side, feeling stronger than I ever have before, is such a blessing. It makes me appreciate this so much more because I couldn’t have predicted this would have happened a couple of months ago.”

All she had hoped to do Saturday was go under 9:20.

“I wanted to just kind of get my get my feet wet and have a nice entry into the steeple, but I wasn’t anticipating an American record today at all,” she said. Related Articles July 14, 2014 Emma Coburn breaks U.S. steeplechase record in Glasgow

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Coburn first went under Simpson’s mark in 2014 during a Diamond League meet in Glasgow, Scotland. But USA Track and Field, the American governing body for the sport, ruled in 2015 that her mark of 9:11.42 wouldn’t be ratified as a record because Coburn didn’t take a drug test after her race — a requirement for a record to be deemed official. She had finished second in the race, hadn’t known the rule and wasn’t drug-tested.

This time, Coburn wasn’t going to make the same mistake. She sought a drug test on her own (she wasn’t required to get one, though she said the meet director had arranged for one anyway after the record). Long after the race and interviews, Coburn found her teammate Simpson getting a massage after her own race. Simpson leapt, gave Coburn a hug and told her how proud she was of her.

“She said, ‘I can’t believe you ran 9:10. I’m so proud of you.'” Coburn recalled. “A typical reaction of hers is you know you have to be really excited for me.”

Conventional wisdom still held that even though the 2014 mark wasn’t official, she would run faster eventually. But recently, even that didn’t feel assured. She visited doctors as far away as Indianapolis and the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Her boyfriend, former CU runner Joe Bosshard, even got her a weight vest for Valentine’s Day to help her with the physical therapy required to strengthen her Achilles.

“It used to feel like a guarantee, ‘Of course I’m going to feel ready when it’s time to go.’” Coburn said. “But there were some dark days this fall and winter, when I wasn’t sure I’d be ready to go.”

Saturday’s race wound up being among the fastest ever. Coburn settled near the back of the 13-person field early — an approach that appeared conservative given the pace of the leaders, though was actually at the same pace as her 2014 run.

She gradually moved up to finish third behind Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet (8:59.97) and Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng (9:00.01) — the two times just off the world record of 8:58.81, set by Russian Gulnara Galkina in 2008. Jebet became only the second woman ever to go under nine minutes in the event, which covers roughly 7½ laps on the track and requires runners to leap over 28 barriers and seven water jumps. American Leah O’Connor nabbed the third fastest American time ever, behind Coburn and Simpson, in 9:18.85.

“Today I felt strong throughout,” Coburn said. “And I feel like I can go a little bit faster and if it’s the right race and the scenario presents itself.”