Top U.S. contender Emma Bates will try to beat Kenyans, dodge potholes in Boston Marathon

Emma Bates should be extra weary of the Boston Marathon course on Monday when she tries to improve upon last year's fifth-place finish.

Not the hills or the headwinds.

The potholes.

The 31-year-old former Boston resident stepped in one midway through the Chicago Marathon last fall, tearing a tissue in her foot. She finished 13th but left the course in a wheelchair.

A setback during her recovery forced Bates to withdraw from the Olympic marathon trials in February. So, instead of planning for Paris, Bates is running Boston again in the 128th edition of the event after she led the pack through Brookline, with the crowd chanting her name.

"That was the coolest thing I've ever done in my career, that's for sure," she said last week. "Being in the lead and setting myself up for the most success that I could have on that day, it was just really special to know that as long as I trust myself, as long as I go after it, that I can do pretty big things."

The runner-up in Chicago in 2021, Bates stayed with the lead pack in Boston last year until winner Hellen Obiri led a breakaway with about one mile to go. Bates finished fifth in two hours 22 minutes 10 seconds -- the second-fastest American woman ever in Boston, and 68 seconds better than her previous personal best.

"I've learned that I can run with the best of them," Bates said. "I expect myself to be the top American. The fact that everybody else wants me to be is just more encouragement and support, rather than pressure."

Obiri among favourites in women's pro race

This year's professional women's race begins at 9:47 a.m. ET, 10 minutes after the men.

Obiri, a two-time Olympic medallist, is among the favourites in Monday's race, the 128th edition of the world's oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. Sara Hall, who has reached the podium in two major marathons, joins Bates in a strong American contingent.

A Minnesota native who was an NCAA champion in the 10,000 meters at Boise State, Bates lived locally for two years as part of the Boston Athletic Association's High Performance Team.

So, she knows the course -- including the notoriously pock-marked roads that emerge from the long and fickle Boston winters.

"Yes, I will be looking out for those," she said. "That's for sure."

Three-time Olympian Malindi Elmore of Kelowna, B.C. was scheduled to race in preparation for a hilly marathon course at the Paris Games, but withdrew recently due to a nagging hamstring injury.

Leading the elite Canadian women is Anne-Marie Comeau of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., who will be competing in her fourth race at the 42.2-kilometre distance but first World Marathon Major.

Last October, she placed second among Canadian women at the Toronot Waterfront Marathon, posting a time of 2:34.51 for a six-second personal best.

3-peat

A third straight men's victory for Evans Chebet would be the first Boston three-peat since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot won three in a row from 2006-08.

He's also running for something more.

Despite winning six of his last seven races, including major victories in Boston and New York, Chebet was left off the provisional roster for the Kenyan Olympic team. He said last week he is hoping a strong finish will rekindle his candidacy.

Kenya swept the marathon gold medals in Tokyo three years ago, with Eliud Kipchoge winning his second straight Olympic title and Peres Jepchirchir taking the women's race. For the three spots per gender in 2024, the country produced a provisional short list of five men and six women.

Kenyans have won the last four men's races in Boston and three straight in the distaff division.

Canadian coming off personal best

Tristan Woodfine will be the lone elite Canadian male runner attempting to secure a spot in the men's Olympic marathon in Paris.

The 30-year-old from Cobden, Ont., (near Ottawa) must finish top five to achieve the feat. The Boston course is ineligible for Olympic qualification as it's a net downhill course, so running under the 2:08:10 Paris entry standard won't be of top priority.

Last year's fifth-place finisher clocked 2:08:35, two minutes faster than Woodfine's 2:10:39 PB from this past Jan. 14 in Houston. Boston is his final shot at making the Canadian Olympic team, with the marathon qualifying window closing May 5.

After Houston, Woodfine followed with another sixth-place finish and beat Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele in a deep field at the hilly New York City Half Marathon on March 17.

Krista DuChene of Brantford, Ont., is the lone Canadian to place among the top five at Boston in the past 10 years, finishing third in 2018.

In the men's wheelchair division, Josh Cassidy of Port Elgin, Ont., returns for a 14th Boston Marathon after finishing 19th last year in 1:47:02.

The three-time Paralympian won the 2012 event in a then-world record 1:18:25.

Kiptum remembered

World record-holder Kelvin Kiptum was supposed to race in the Netherlands this weekend, with plans to attack the flat Rotterdam course in pursuit of the 2-hour barrier.

But the 24-year-old Olympic gold-medal favorite died in a one-car accident in his native Kenya in February, leaving a void in the marathon world.

"He was my teammate. We trained together," fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi said. "If you were able to meet him, you know how happy and always smiling and always excited to support people he was. And he was always very present and wanting the best for everybody. So, we dearly miss him."

Kiptum was the first man to run a competitive marathon in under 2 hours, 1 minute when he set the world record of 2:00.35 in Chicago in October. That broke the official mark of 2:01:09 set by Kipchoge, who had also run 1:59:40 in an exhibition on a closed course with pacers that is not eligible for the world record.

"[Kiptum] was such a big part of our group," said Lokedi, who won New York in 2022 in her marathon debut. "He always believed in us. It's sad. He meant so much for a lot of people."

Weather

Forecasts for Monday call for sunshine with temperatures around 11 C greeting the runners when they arrive in Hopkinton in the morning, then warming to about 15 C by the time the field departs. Stragglers could see temps near 20 C in Copley Square by midafternoon.

History

The race marks the 100th anniversary of the start moving from Ashland to Hopkinton in 1924 to conform to the new international distance standard of 26.2 miles. It's also the 10th anniversary of Meb Keflezighi's win in 2014, when he snapped a three-decade American drought the year after the finish line bombing.