It was two days before the Boston Marathon, and Emma Bates was completely freaking out. At a press conference the day before she told the whole world she was a contender to win and planned to stay with the lead pack.
Then the pressure of her announcement started getting to her.
“All of that pressure and all of the chaos that was going around me all just weighed in on me and then I just started crying and I had a breakdown of just pressure and stress,” she says.
Luckily, she had someone with her to help: her boyfriend Steve Finley.
“I just let it all out and he just held me until I was able to get all of my tears out,” says Bates, 30. “And it was like 20 minutes of just full on shaking and crying and feeling out of control. And after that 20 minutes I felt fine. So it was just kind of like a release of emotions.”
She said she needed to get those emotions out of the way to focus and be relaxed and confident. Clearly it worked. Bates finished first among Americans, fifth overall in a new personal best of 2:22:10 and led the pack for several miles late in the race
And, it seemed, her boyfriend knew exactly how…
