When the screaming started, Emma Bates was still a long ways away from the finish line. The Elk River native had about 13 miles left to run in Monday’s Boston Marathon, her first 26.2-mile race since a devastating foot injury last fall.
Bates led the women’s field into the “scream tunnel” near the Wellesley College campus, reaching out to high-five as many spectators as she could along that noisy section of the course. Though she lost a bit of time — and later, the lead — she still had something to shout about at the end. For the second year in a row, Bates finished as the top American woman in Boston, crossing the line in 12th place.
Her time of 2 hours, 27 minutes, 14 seconds wasn’t as fast as she hoped. Bates finished about 4½ minutes behind winner Hellen Obiri of Kenya and about five minutes off her personal best.
Yet she couldn’t be disappointed. Once a favorite to make the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics, Bates, 31, had to withdraw from last February’s Olympic trials after tearing a plantar fascia during the Chicago Marathon four months earlier. In Boston, she resumed her place among the nation’s elite marathoners on a course where she finished fifth last year.
“I wasn’t quite sure how I would be able to come off the injury in my recovery process," Bates said in the post-race news conference. “I was just trying to test myself and go after it. I didn’t have anything to lose.
“I’m proud of finishing. I’m proud of pushing myself and the efforts I put into it. Finishing 12th isn’t quite what I expected or hoped for … I wasn’t able to have the wheels at the end."
Bates ran a personal-best time of 2:22:10 last year in Boston, making her the second-fastest U.S. woman in the race’s history. She was eager to keep the momentum going at the Chicago Marathon in October.
Midway through that race, Bates stepped in a pothole, injuring her foot. Though she kept going and finished 13th, she was in such pain she left the course in a wheelchair. She was not able to recover in time for the Olympic trials.
