BOULDER — While it seemed only a matter of time before Emma Coburn would break the American record in the steeplechase that was held by training partner and fellow Colorado alum Jenny Simpson for nearly seven years, it was equally inevitable that Simpson would celebrate the news without a bruised ego.

In fact, when it happened last month at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., Simpson shed tears of joy for Coburn who, like Simpson, ran the steeplechase in the Olympics while a CU student. It helped that they now focus on different events. At the same meet where Coburn took her record, Simpson ran the fastest 1,500 meters this year by an American woman. Simpson hasn’t run the steeplechase in five years while becoming arguably the greatest female 1,500-meter runner in U.S. history.

Coburn had kept the record within the CU family. Lending still more emotion, Simpson knew of Coburn’s fight to overcome chronic Achilles tendon troubles last fall and winter. Simpson had been there to support her.

“A lot of the tears were out of appreciation of knowing this hasn’t been an easy road for her this year,” Simpson said. “To see something come together so well, it’s almost unexplainable to me how she could go through so many months of really struggling to get to a good place with her injury. Having a front-row seat to that, seeing the struggle and then knowing she ran so well, you feel like you have a little skin in the game.”

Coburn and Simpson are the best U.S. runners in their respective events, and have been since before the 2012 Olympics. Barring injury, they are likely to qualify for the Rio Olympics at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, now less than two weeks away. Both are coached by CU head coach Mark Wetmore and assistant Heather Burroughs.

Simpson is 29, Coburn 25. They have known each other since Coburn enrolled at CU in 2008, the year Simpson ran in the first Olympics steeplechase for women in Beijing.

“The year and a half we shared at CU together, I was very much the ‘mentee’ and she was the mentor,” said Coburn, a Boulder native who grew up in Crested Butte. “It was more of an admiration that I had for her, and she was trying to show me the ropes. She was crucial because she shattered any expectation that I would have of any female athlete. She was running 3:59 in college for the 1,500, and at the time only four women in the U.S. (three before Simpson) had ever gone under four minutes.”

“Very strong egos”

From 2010 through 2012, Simpson was coached by former Air Force coach Juli Benson in Colorado Springs, but after the London Olympics Simpson returned to Boulder and Wetmore.

“When she came back, it was more like peers and friendship rather than mentee-mentor,” Coburn said. “But it was still nice to have someone who continued to shatter those expectations and barriers who opened my eyes when I was really young.”

Simpson won the 1,500 meters at the 2011 world championships. She failed to make the finals at the London Olympics, where Coburn was ninth in the steeplechase. Simpson’s gold medal in 2011 was no fluke, though — she took silver at the 2013 worlds.

People often ask Wetmore how their egos co-exist.

“By having very strong egos,” Wetmore said. “They have room in their self-esteem for other people to be successful. While I don’t know that they’re best off-the-track friends, I think they nevertheless get it that they’re professionals and get it that they’ll both do better if they can work cooperatively, and they both have room for each other to be successful in slightly different arenas. While they occasionally overlap in events, I think they see a unique sphere of influence available to each of them.”

Their training group includes two-time Olympian Kara Goucher and Shalaya Kipp, who ran the steeplechase with Coburn at the London Olympics. They, too, are CU alums.

“It’s such an individual sport, so it’s special to have someone along on the journey with you,” Simpson said. “What continues to be unique about me and Emma is that we’ve been through this journey for a such a long period of time — through college, entering our professional careers and up until now.”

Coburn actually eclipsed Simpson’s steeplechase record (which was 9:12.50) once before, running 9:11.42 in Scotland two years ago, but it wasn’t ratified because no drug testing was conducted at that meet, a requirement for records to be official. When Coburn broke the record on May 28 (9:10.76), she had modest expectations, hoping to run 9:15-9:20 because of her winter of Achilles troubles.

“I felt so much better than I did when I broke the record in 2014, so much stronger,” Coburn said. “It definitely gives me confidence, knowing (because of) how I felt during the race that 9:10 isn’t my limit.”

Coburn raced all of the 2015 season with tendinitis in her right Achilles. She took time off in the fall, hoping it would improve. When she came back, there were weeks when she could run well and weeks when she couldn’t run at all.

“Any injury is scary heading into an Olympic year, and the chronic nature of an Achilles injury that’s pretty stubborn, doesn’t go away, that’s scary also,” Coburn said. “I luckily had a very patient and confident group of people around me. Even if behind closed doors they weren’t feeling confident, to me they would present a confident front that we’d be able to solve this problem.”

So far this season, it hasn’t been an issue.

“It’s something I am careful with,” Coburn said. “I know how bad it was, so I still do rehab every day, I still get treatment. It’s not an issue daily at all. I feel healthy, but it’s something I still try and manage.”

“So proud of me”

Although both runners were at the Prefontaine meet, it was a long time before Simpson got to congratulate Coburn because Simpson’s event was right after Coburn’s.

“It wasn’t until two hours after the fact that I actually saw her, so some of the excitement for me had diminished,” Coburn said. “But she saw me and she was getting a massage and she jumped off the massage table and gave me a hug and said she was so proud of me. She said, ‘I can’t believe you ran 9:10, that’s so fast, I’m so proud of you.’

“She saw the whole (Achilles) saga. She’s very plugged in to how difficult some times were. Also, so plugged in to how, even if everything is perfect, how difficult running a fast time is. She was super-supportive and happy. Later I saw an interview (on TV), how she was crying from happiness, she got emotional about it. That was sweet to see.”