As Emma Bates approached the finish line at last October’s Chicago Marathon, she was visibly limping. She crossed the line in 13th place and immediately collapsed on the ground before being ushered away in a wheelchair.
A week later, an MRI revealed she had partially torn her plantar fascia after stepping in a pothole during the race—an injury that, coupled with a case of posterior tibial tendonitis, would ultimately cause her to miss the Running in the Cold Other Hearst Subscriptions.
It was the first major injury of Bates’s career. She had become one of the top marathoners in the U.S., thanks to a break-out race in Chicago in 2021, where she came in second, and a strong seventh-place showing in the marathon at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Although she won’t represent Team USA at this summer’s Paris Olympics, Bates will line up on Monday at the Boston Marathon—The Psychology Behind Runners Obsession With BQs.
Last year, Bates surprised some by leading for much of the race, ultimately finishing in 2:22:10 for fifth place. Her time was the second-fastest ever by an American at Boston, behind Shalane Flanagan’s 2:22:02 from 2014.
At the prerace press conference on Friday, Bates said she’s “much fitter than I thought I would be” after rigorously cross-training and has been running consistently on the ground with no pain. She and her coach, Joe Bosshard, were pleasantly surprised at her progress during the previous few weeks.
“We just started realizing that I was running faster than ever and running stronger than I ever have before,” she said.
her first race back since Chicago cross-training, Bates logged as many as 24 hours a week on a stationary bike. To stave off boredom, she would watch TV at the gym or listen to a combination of classical music, classic rock (she loves Led Zeppelin), and video game music. The routine was grueling—physically and mentally—but she knew that it was necessary to return to form.
“It was all worth it in the end,” she said. “I knew that I was going to come out of it stronger, so having that in my mind, I was able to show up every day and put my heart into it.”
Bates said she is ready for whatever Monday’s race has in store for her. She knows the often-windy Boston weather could throw a wrench in her race strategy, but ideally, she would like to run the race similarly to last year—with a fast close in the final miles.
Compared to a flat course like Chicago, the rolling hills of Boston often cause the professional race to ebb-and-flow, with frequent changes in pace. But Bates is ready for the inconsistency. In fact, she prefers it.
“I used to be awful with the surge and the slow down of the paces, but now that I’ve trained so much, I’ve done so many fartleks, and I train to run that way, so I’m ready,” she said. “If I can stick with people and ride those waves, that’s the more fun way to go, I think.”
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner who has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
