Chapter 458 - Marathons and Business 2

The commentators as well as all the fans of the marathon and Jake realized this and started to cheer up, the fans hoped to cheer up Jake for him to keep running at this pace and thus break his world record again in this Chicago marathon.

"We are reaching the last km of this marathon and Jake Smith continues to run at a very fast pace, this way he will break his world record again and he will decrease his previous time by many seconds."

"It is true, it seems that this is what Jake really intends and he does not look very tired even after running 41 km, it seems that the sports media was wrong and Jake continued to train a lot for the marathons and that is why he is going to break the world record today."

"Yes, he is coming in the last few meters of this Chicago marathon and can already see the track that is at the finish line, Jake Smith is still fast and we cannot even see where the second place is."

"And so Jake Smith finishes the 1998 Chicago marathon in the first place and breaks the world record that was his own made in Berlin and with an incredible time, Jake finished that marathon in 2 hours, 4 minutes and 50 seconds."

"It's really incredible, he broke his last world record for a long time, his last world record was 2 hours, 5 minutes and 55 seconds and he cut that time by more than 1 minute in that marathon and he doesn't even look very tired."

Jake was very happy to break his world record again, he ran in such a fast time because as far as he knew his current record could only be broken in 2007, by then Jake would have been able to train to run in less than 2 hours and will have improved his current world record again several times.

Jake had to do this because after starting games in the NBA he didn't know when he could run another marathon, he would definitely run in the Olympics, but he couldn't run that fast because he had to run several sports in the Olympics.

Jake went to do a test for the organizers to prove that he was not using drugs to break that world record and then he went to celebrate and received his award for the track record, the world record and the victory.

Jake received 175 thousand dollars for the victory and was happy to take another medal and trophy to his house that was already full, Jake greeted one of the representatives of Adidas who was in the marathon and took a photo with him, after all, Jake was using several products from Adidas when he won that marathon.

Jake also received a Gatorade from the Gatorade representative and took a photo with him too, both were very pleased with Jake breaking that world record and having such a good time, it was a good start for their sponsorship.

Just like in the last year Jake warned the organizers that he would be near the finish line waiting for a friend and they organized a chair and table for Jake who was comfortable sitting there.

Certainly, Jake was an athlete different from the others and did things that other athletes didn't and for that reason, he was a star in the marathon world and brought a lot of visibility, the stations that were broadcasting the marathon still didn't know, but many Los Angeles fans Lakers were watching this marathon.

Los Angeles Lakers fans naturally researched Jake who would play on their team and was first in the draft this year, so they knew that Jake was also someone running in the marathons and had already won a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics and in an athletics world.

They also knew that Jake had only missed one marathon since he started running and won all others even though he ran in more than 10 major marathons around the world, so as the NBA season was suspended some fans of the Los Angeles Lakers team decided to watch that Chicago marathon that Jake would run to see him win.

And that's exactly what happened and Jake even broke the world record in that marathon, some of those fans might have started watching other marathons after watching this one and everyone was happy that Jake had won.

After a few minutes waiting for Jake to finally see Zack and he was close to finishing the Chicago marathon, Jake could see that Zack was trying his best after seeing that the marathon was over.

Seeing this, Jake was very happy because he was less than 200 meters away and the marathon time was many minutes below 3 hours, which meant that Zack had broken his personal record and would be able to finish this marathon with a time well below 3 hours that it was what he wanted.

Zack ended the marathon with a time of 2 hours, 46 minutes and 12 seconds and broke his personal record and managed to run in time below 3 hours and actually finished just under the first 100 of that marathon.

This was incredible for the second marathon just that Zack participated and showed that he had the potential to be an elite athlete and maybe one day become a professional who could win a marathon.

Jake went to where Zack was and celebrated with the friend who had managed to break a personal record of him, Zack was very happy and did not know that Jake had broken his world record in that marathon.

"Congratulations Zack, you managed to break your personal record and finished this marathon in a lot less than 3 hours, you really have a talent for marathons."

"Thanks, Jake, I'm really happy, I feel like it was worth all the training I did in over 2 years, I want to continue training after that and run more marathons."

"Thanks a lot, Jake, it was you who showed me how fun it could be to run marathons and I was healthier and happier because of that, and it was because I ran that 15 km with you that I managed to finish this marathon in less than 3 hours."

After Zack finished the marathon Jake said goodbye to the marathon organizers and left to return to the hotel, his friends who were watching the marathon came to celebrate with Zack and Jake.

As soon as Zack learned that Jake had broken the marathon world record again and was a little embarrassed, he said congratulations to Jake and his other friends laughed, Jake wanted to take everyone to a restaurant, but Zack was still very tired after that marathon.

So everyone went back to the hotel as they had agreed and the next day they would go to the restaurant, after all, Zack would stay in Chicago for two days to recover from the marathon and Jake would have to return the next day.

After a few hours that everyone had arrived at the hotel and even Zack had rested some more, the hotel called Jake's room saying that someone was looking for him in the hotel lobby.

Jake already imagined who he was and asked them to wait a few minutes, he had already showered as soon as he arrived at the hotel and was wearing comfortable clothes and had to change clothes to talk to the person he was thinking about.

But Jake didn't put on his social clothes like he always wore and put on an Adidas shirt and pants and an Adidas sneaker before coming down with a bottle of Gatorade, Jake always liked to show off his sponsor's products and he couldn't before because the university wouldn't let it.

So Jake went down to the hotel lobby and just as he expected whoever wanted to talk to him was Chloe who was a reporter for WBBM-TV, Chloe was surprised because she didn't think Jake came to talk to her in an Adidas outfit, but how she came to ask to interview he had no way of asking Jake to change his clothes.

"Hi Jake, sorry to come like this without telling you before, but I don't know your phone number and I just knew the hotel where you normally stayed."

"Chloe, it's good to see you again, it's okay for you to show up here at the hotel to call me, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to do an interview with you, after all, you just broke the world record again in that marathon, and a lot of fans of the marathons and the sports media have some questions that you could answer."

"Okay, I'm going to do this interview with you, Chloe, but watch out for the questions or I won't answer."

Chloe hoped that Jake would actually accept the interview, after all, he was never afraid to speak the truth, but what Chloe could not imagine was that Jake expected her to come to do this interview because he wanted to say a few things about the marathons.

So the hotel arranged a separate place for them to talk, even though Chloe saw that Jake was wearing Adidas clothes, she was a reporter for the broadcast station and couldn't just write what Jake was saying.

So the hotel made the press room available for them, and the reporting team came in to organize the filming, normally that couldn't happen, but Jake was an important customer of the hotel and he was also important to the broadcaster that sent the reporting team.

"First, Jake, first of all, I would like to congratulate you on winning once again in the Chicago marathon and still managing to break the world record."

"Thanks, Chloe, my first marathon was in Chicago and I have a very special affection for this marathon and this city and I am very happy to have won 4 times here."

"That was my next question, Jake, this was your fourth victory in the Chicago marathon and so you became the athlete who won this marathon the most and also the one who won 4 times in a row and I think it will be difficult for someone to break this remember, what do you feel about it."

"I feel very happy, I never expected anything like this to happen when I decided to run my first marathon here in Chicago when I was 16 years old, it is a great honor for me to have achieved this."