Emma Coburn is playing for keeps

After spending last summer in London participating in the 2012 Olympic Games, you figured maybe Emma Coburn would want a quiet summer. Though Colorado is known for skiing, summertime in Colorado is one of the most beautiful times to visit. Her hometown of Crested Butte isn’t too shabby to see in the warm weather either. Though this would suffice for some, the University of Colorado steepler has bigger fish to fry than catching rays at high altitude.

This weekend, Coburn will compete in the NCAA West Regionals to vie for a spot in the National Championship Meet.  While she ran a solid 4:06:87 1500m at the Oxy High Performance meet in California (where she set the season best time for all of the NCAA), Coburn is a steepler. Though she could make a run at the win in the 1500m, the NCAA meet doesn’t lend well to the 1500/steeple chase double. She would be racing both finals within 2 hours of one another if she attempted it. Instead she will have fresh legs to compete for her first NCAA Outdoor Title.

While Coburn is gearing up for this weekend’s regional’s in Texas, she is also in the midst of her graduation from the University of Colorado with a degree in marketing. Before he PR run at the Oxy meet, Coburn won her first Pac-12 individual title, winning the steeple chase at the conference championships. After the NCAA meet in Eugene, Oregon in the beginning of June, Coburn will then shift her focus to the USA Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa in Mid-June. After that, she will run in Europe, and hopefully, compete in the World Track and Field Championships.

The mountains of Colorado aren’t where Coburn will spend her summer, but what she has in store doesn’t sound too shabby. Keep up with Emma’s summer competitons at University of Colorado’s athletic’s website.

Photo courtesy of the Denver Post