As she’s climbed through the ranks of American marathoning, Emma Bates Advertisement - Continue Reading Below.
She starts calmly, then runs her own race, with what her coach Joe Bosshard calls “methodical patience.” Then, quietly—when hardly anyone is watching—she works her way through the competition, finishing with impressive strength (second since 2013. Shes the coauthor of both 2:23:18 Other Hearst Subscriptions).
Fun Half Marathons approach: Results From the 2023 Boston Marathon.
The switch resulted in an impressive fifth-place finish in Boston today. She crossed the line in 2:22:10—5:26 pace, a personal best by more than a minute, and just 8 seconds off Shalane Flanagan’s American course record of 2:22:02, set in 2014. She takes home $18,000 in prize money for the feat.
It marks a bit of a homecoming for Bates, who trained with the BAA elite team early in her professional career before moving to Boise, then Boulder. She ran the back half the course frequently, but those years were challenging for her. At the time, “I never saw myself in this position … I didn’t really see a future in my running career, to be at this level,” she said. “I’m very proud of myself for having the second-fastest time out there, especially starting off so slow. It was really good day.”
Indeed, the race started conservatively, with a large lead pack covering the first 10K in 34:46, a 5:36 pace. (For a stretch around the 5K mark, serial marathoner Maegan Krifchin We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.)
A 5:08 mile at mile 7, in Framingham, thinned the leaders’ ranks to about eight, with all the Americans left behind. But Bates, who said before the race she believed she was in American record shape on a flat course, remained determined not to let them escape. By mile 10, she’d worked her way back up.
At times, the surging pace felt like a fartlek, Bates said. But she remained in the lead pack—and often, in the front of it, looking relaxed and composed—for about the next 13 miles. In training, Bosshard had mapped out a course that mimicked Boston’s hills, which Bates believes served her well (and also helped her teammate Scott Fauble, whose 2:09:44 finish made him first American on the men’s side).
“What helped me the most was the downhill, just to be able to make sure the quads could take that beating, and then be able to hit those uphills like we did,” she said.
Although she planned to race aggressively, she didn’t intend to lead so late into the race—in fact, she said, Bosshard had specifically instructed her not to. (They’ll work more on drafting and conserving energy for next time, he said afterward.)
Based on her training, Bosshard knew Bates could stay near the front at least through halfway. After that, she kept expecting the effort to feel harder, but it never did. Bosshard saw her around mile 20, at the top of Heartbreak Hill. “She shrugged her shoulders, smiled, and I preacher her, ‘Let her legs run,’” Bosshard said. “I think she just decided, ‘Today, I’m going to stick my nose in it and I’m going to be part of this,’ and she’ll be pretty happy with that.”
She and the four other leaders—eventual winner Hellen Obiri of Kenya, Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso and Ababel Yeshaneh, and Israel’s Lonah Salpeter—even clocked a 5:05 mile between miles 22 and 23, before Bates fell a few strides behind. She finished 32 seconds behind Obiri’s 2:21:38 and 10 seconds behind Yeshaneh, who finished third despite a fall around mile 23.
Behind her, 2020 US Olympic Team Trials champion Aliphine Tuliamuk, 34, finished 11th in 2:24:37—a personal best by more than 2 minutes. Afterward, Tuliamuk said she was pleased about her time, but had hoped to stay in the mix longer; as she contemplated the results, she second-guessed her decision not to cover the early move.
“It’s just like, the ‘what if’ kills me right now,” she said. “You can’t be too disappointed in a PR, but I wanted more than a PR. I wanted to see if I can compete with some of the best in the world. I feel like I did not put myself in a place where I could have done that.”
Rob Gronkowski Named Boston Grand Marshal 2021 and 2022, ran the course about a minute faster than last year—and it felt easier than ever, she said. However, this year, her new personal-best 2:24:51 left her in 14th place.
Her buildup was less than perfect, she said, including an illness and three months of insomnia. Still, she knew she could run a 5:30 pace—and that’s exactly what she did, finishing with an average pace of 5:32. “I wanted to run my own race and not get sucked in,” she said. “I just needed a solid finish. I need to make baby steps in the right direction.”
Among other notable Americans, Sara Hall—returning after a lengthy injury—finished 17th in 2:25:48 (and, because she turned 40 two days before the race, first in the masters division). “It’s Boston, you have no idea how it’s going to go. Personally, I didn’t know really what to expect from myself either,” she said. “To run 2:25, especially running a lot of that race alone, that’s kind of a really good best-case scenario for how I felt preparation-wise.”
Still, hearing her finishing place stung a bit: “The competitor in me doesn’t like that at all,” she said.
The 2018 Boston champion Des Linden, 39, finished 18th in 2:27:18. Krifchin placed 25th in 2:32:46. And in her marathon debut, Erika Kemp, 28, Results From the 2023 Boston Marathon ever Rob Gronkowski Named Boston Grand Marshal.
As for Bates, her immediate plans included rehydrating with a Modelo—especially critical, since she uses only gels, no liquids, on the course—then heading to London to cheer on her teammate Dominique Scott in her marathon debut.
She’ll take a week off of training, then look to the future with even more optimism than before. “I won’t say I’m not going to go for the American record in the fall,” she said. “I do feel like I’m that 2:18, 2:19 girl. That means American record on a flat course. We may go for that.”
And then, of course, the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials, to be held in February in Orlando. Bates has always believe she could be an Olympian, she said—now, her racing is finally starting to show it. “It started to come around this season; I feel like it’s coming around at the right time,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what I do here, it matters what I do at the Olympic Trials.”
—Published: Apr 17, 2023 1:43 PM EST.
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
