Chapter 457 - Marathons and Business 1

Jake really trusted that Zack was able to run that marathon in less than 3 hours, and thought until he was able to run in a time of close to 2 hours and 30 minutes, and if Jake was right it meant that Zack could run in the group of elite in the marathon and still finish the marathon without getting exhausted.

Zack had really asked Coach Davis this before, the biggest difficulty for Zack and other athletes in the marathon was keeping a steady running pace so they wouldn't get too tired, and that was the biggest benefit of running in Jake's group who was a master of running at the right pace, even if Jake's pace was very fast.

And after running 15 km in Jake's group he just had to run at a slower pace than normal and continue as soon as Zack could finish the marathon before 3 hours, and if in the final part of the marathon he still had breath I could try to get an even better time.

After a while, the 1998 Chicago marathon finally started and Jake and Zack were going to run for the first time together and from the beginning, a large group of athletes stayed close to Jake because they thought the same way as Zack.

"Welcome to everyone who came to follow the 1998 Chicago marathon, and just as everyone expected one of the biggest champions of that marathon to come back this year to try to win again."

"Okay, Jake Smith is the current record holder for victories in this Chicago marathon having won three times and the most amazing thing is that it was three years in a row, so naturally Jake is the favorite to win this marathon for the fourth time in a row and who knows maybe breaking his own world record again."

"We hope that happens, let's see if Jake continues to run at a high level even after becoming an NBA player."

Jake was surprised at the start of the marathon because there were never so many athletes running in the same group as him during that marathon, many were Americans, but some were from other countries and wanted to run with Jake so that they would keep a good running pace.

Everyone knew the rules for running in Jake's group that was created by other athletes and so the other athletes took turns to lead the group while everyone followed Jake's pace and so Jake and most of them didn't have to face the wind resistance.

Jake also felt that in this marathon as well as in training his clothes were more comfortable and his shoes were more comfortable, so he found it easier to maintain his running pace, especially after training normally at a pace of 3 seconds less for km.

Jake stopped at the fuel points and always took a drink to hydrate himself, with Gatorade he felt it was better than before, Jake didn't necessarily need to stop at all the fuel points, but he wanted to do that because of the other athletes who were running with him.

And Jake trained every day to do this and did not lose his race pace making these detours, Jake also knew the course well and that was why it was easier for him and that is why Jake trusted this marathon to break his world record with ease.

After 10 km of the marathon the athletes of the group of Jake still did not feel very tired even running at such an intense pace, not even Zack felt tired and everyone felt confident knowing that they were running correctly with Jake.

Jake hoped for this because, in addition to Zack, all the other athletes in his group were elite and wanted to finish this marathon in the top 50 of the marathon, so in addition to Zack, he expected everyone to accompany him up to 25 km at least.

Jake continued running with his group and so he passed the 15 km and looked to see how Zack was doing, Zack still looked good and knew he was going to endure more, but thinking about his goal for the marathon he warned Zack that they had reached us 15 km.

Zack was a little shocked because he never ran 15 km in such a short time and he decided not to be greedy even though he was not tired and was the first to leave Jake's elite group and started to slow down his running pace.

Zack knew that that 15 km had changed all the running pace that he normally had to do, after all, he normally ran half the marathon in 1 hour and 30 minutes and in the final part of the marathon he increased the pace a little more to try to run in less than 3 hours.

But now Zack had passed the 15 km and not even 44 minutes had passed, luckily he had combined a running pace with trainer Davis and soon he slowed his running pace, Zack mainly intended to run in less than 3 hours in that marathon and not to have the best time possible.

Meanwhile, Jake's elite group went through 25 km and the other athletes in Jake's group started to leave the group and slow down the race, Jake was still calm and in this marathon, he didn't care who would be the second and only with his race.

"Jake Smith's elite group continues to lead the race, even though Jake is never leading the group we can say that he was the first in this whole marathon and he continues running smoothly after 25 km while several athletes left his group and the others are very tired."

"After this 25 km, we can see that Jake continues to run very well in this marathon and still has the same physical conditioning as the other marathons and he can certainly win this marathon if we have no other surprises."

"I don't think we will, I think some of the athletes who remain in Jake's group want to do like the American athletes who accompanied Jake until he slowed down his running pace and so they were able to finish second and third in that marathon."

Jake didn't think about it, but if he knew he would say that if the other athletes in his group intend to do that they will have two results in the marathon, or they will be able to finish the marathon with the best time in their career, or they will not be able to finish the marathon.

That's because Jake would run at a different pace than the other marathons because he intended to break his world record, so he asked Zack not to stay with him for many km or else he could be harmed.

Jake reached 35 km and continued running at the same pace as he had done a few times in other marathons, of the 6 athletes who continued to follow him after 30 km, 4 had already given up and only 2 followed because they knew Jake would slow down his.

But those two who were accompanying him had never even been in the top 10 in other marathons and were thus suffering to accompany Jake, who had not yet slowed down the running pace.

With 37 km of running Jake slowed down his running pace and the other athletes relaxed but realized that they might not be able to finish the marathon because they were too tired and had worked too hard.

"In that marathon, Jake kept his pace for 37 km and just started to slow down, the athletes who were running with him took it well, but now they look very tired and will have to run much more slowly to try to recover their energy to finishing this marathon."

"The athletes who left Jake's group after the 30 km marathon are far behind, but they have the energy to run at a good pace until the end of the marathon and these two athletes will pass."

"That's right, Jake has a very intense running pace that only he can handle and in this marathon, Jake has a great time to be able to break the world record, so these athletes should not have followed him for 37 km."

"Who knows, one day we will see Jake run an entire marathon at this incredible pace that he does in most of the marathon, so it will be a hard world record to break, we hope that Jake does not slow down his running pace and break the world record in that marathon."

At the time that Jake was running, commentators would normally celebrate that the athlete would break the world record, but they knew that Jake had a habit of slowing down his running pace a lot in the final km of the marathon and so they didn't know what Jake intended.

While Jake was in the final part of the marathon Zack had still just passed the 30 km, unlike last time he passed the distance that was a barrier for normal athletes with ease, Zack felt just a little tired and still hoped to finish this marathon before 3 hours.

Even though he was doing well in that marathon, Zack still did not know if he could finish the marathon before 3 hours because he ran the initial 15 km at the same pace as Jake and then had to change his normal running pace so as not to get too tired.

Zack spent half the marathon in a much shorter time than 1 hour and 30 minutes as he had calculated at the beginning of the marathon when he approached the end of the marathon if he did not feel tired he would increase his running pace to finish in the best possible time.

But as Zack didn't have the system to help him as Jake did he didn't know if running at the pace he was going to be able to finish this marathon before 3 am as it was his goal.

Meanwhile, Jake had already passed the 41 km marathon and was just over 1 km to finish the Chicago marathon that year, at that point, everyone could see that Jake was still running at a fast pace and his time was much lower than his old world record.

So unless Jake got hurt or slowed down his running pace until he was almost walking he would break his world record in that marathon.