Emma Bates, 2nd fastest US woman in Boston Marathon history, credits her Minnesota "grittiness" for success
MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota native is making history.
Emma Bates came in fifth place among women in the Boston Marathon Monday. Her time of two hours, 22 minutes and 10 seconds is the second fastest for an American woman, ever.
"I knew that one day I would do something special," Bates told WCCO News.
The 30 year old ran into the record book at the Boston Marathon with an average mile pace of five minutes and 27 seconds. She kept with the lead of the pack from the start, but that wasn't always the plan.
"It was more to stay in the front or second pack and try and pounce in the end," she said. "But I felt really good and it felt really easy until like two miles to go."
While leading the race wasn't the plan, breaking a record was.
"I always thought that I would do something at Boston like this someday," she said. "And now that it has come to fruition, really means I have a bright future ahead. I really feel like my Boston marathon that just jump started my career but I just really have all the confidence now that I've done that."
It's something her high school coaches always knew too.
"Once she left Elk River High School, I knew she had a tremendous amount of talent," Bates's former cross country coach Mike Niziolek said. "And if she put her mind to it, she was going to do incredible things. And she is definitely doing that today."
Bates credits her toughness, in part to her upbringing in Minnesota.
"Being a Minnesotan, it definitely instilled a lot of grittiness with me through all the winters and even the summers, heat training and humidity, the mosquitoes. It made me learn how to work hard and not care about feeling bad. It was just get through it and have resiliency," she said.
She adds the support from her home state means so much.
"It's incredible. It's truly incredible to have the opportunity to coach somebody that good," Niziolek said. "One of the worlds very best marathoners."
Bates plans to beat the American record this fall. Next year, she hopes to qualify for the Olympics.
"People are saying they are inspired by me and that's what's so cool," she said. "I really want to run to inspire others, and to hear that, it makes me want to go out there and runner even harder."
