HOPKINTON, Mass. — 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 of the hills or the headwinds.
It’s the potholes that top her list.
The 31-year-old former Boston resident stepped in one midway through the Chicago Marathon last fall, tearing 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 a year after she led the pack through Brookline, with the crowd chanting her name.