bhwS

by Cr0w0019

this is a fanfic of a bhwS book i read with a little bit of things edited to make it better

25. Chapter 25

Back for the Sophomore Year

Of course, the commentators couldn't know that Jake could run faster than his own world record when he wanted to, so it was natural for them to think that way, Jake kept running smoothly.

After running the 40km marathon Jake still had a big lead in second place, at this point, it was clear that Jake would win this marathon, Jake was running at a slower pace just to make sure he wasn't even tired after running these 40 km.

After earning two resistance points this year by winning both major marathons and gaining strength points, he had no problem winning a marathon even running at the pace he was training.

Even more, after he went through Coach Davis's resistance training that was preparing Jake for long-distance running, even though he tired more running alone he had spent less stamina for running using some techniques he learned from Coach Davis.

When Jake crossed the 42 km and entered the Olympic Stadium it was certain that he would win easily, American fans and sports fans applauded Jake who was winning one more marathon and one more gold medal at the World Championships in Athletics.

"And Jake wins this marathon at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics, it's certainly well deserved for what Jake has been doing in the last few years in marathons."

"It's true, Jake wins another gold medal for the American team that underperformed the World Championships in Athletics one year."

"Let's wait and see if Jake will run another marathon later this year or now focus on college basketball again, I'm sure he's bringing a lot of pride to UNC by winning that gold medal."

Jake received one more gold medal later and was proud to receive just as he did after the Olympics, Jake hoped that in the next few years he could win many more medals like this and maybe other medals as well.

Jake eventually found a reporter who was interviewing the other athletes who won and who performed well at this World Championships in Athletics, Jake usually did not give interviews after marathons, but as the reporter was in front of him Jake could not just leave.

"Mr. Smith, may I have an interview with you?"

"Yes of course."

"Thank you so much, what did you feel after you first won a gold medal in a world cup?"

"It is very good, it is a great pride to win such a marathon with the best runners from various countries, especially since today I am representing my country which makes this victory more special."

"How do you feel when you're just 18 and already having major achievements such as a gold medal in the Olympics and World Championships in Athletics and winning several of the world's top marathons?"

"I think age is not very important in sport, anyone at all ages can win a race if they have the best performance on marathon day, I'm just happy to think that for my current age I can go on and on for several years running for more marathons."

"And this year do you plan to participate in any other marathon or will you focus on basketball again?"

"I plan to participate in one more marathon this year at least, maybe I can do another one before I focus fully on basketball."

"One last question, what did you think of the American team's performance at the World Championships in Athletics this year?"

"I thought it was a very good performance, the athletes from my country worked as hard as I did and we couldn't win more gold medals this year because the competition was so tough and the athletes from other countries were better."

"Thank you for your time and congratulations again for winning the gold medal."

"Thank you."

Jake didn't like these interviews very much because sometimes reporters might ask a question that made the athlete uncomfortable and might give the wrong answer, as well as the question of what Jake thought about the performance of the American team.

Even though Jake has relieved the American team and praised athletes from other countries which might be a good answer, he may have offended athletes from other countries who have competed in the World Championships in Athletics in other years that the American team won several medals of gold.

But he was happy for the victory and so didn't care much about it, at the end of the day Jake went to a dinner party with some of the American athletes who won medals to celebrate this World Championships in Athletics.

Jake couldn't drink, so he stayed for a short time at dinner so as not to disrupt the fun of the other athletes, the next day Jake would return to Miami to spend time with his mother until it was time to return to university later this month.

Jake wanted to see what the other players on the team would be like when they found out that Coach Dean Smith had left the team, he figured it would come as a surprise to everyone, but it wouldn't be a problem for the team's performance because he remembered that the team would have a great performance this year.

He hoped that by what he did last year on the team and with coach Guthridge in charge of the team he could play much longer and thus achieve better personal results than last year.

At the hotel resting Jake was happy in the room because he got the news from the system that he had received 1 statistic point in each physical statistic for winning the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics.

Jake didn't count on those statistic points, but he thought he might end up getting to be a major international competition for athletes, even after a few years that points to win the major circuit counted, the points in the World Championships in Athletics also counted.

"Fate, show me my statistics on my third job."

[Here it is.]

Statistics Jake

[Name: Jake Smith]

[Age: 18 years]

[Job: Runner]

[Height: 2.01 m]

[Weight: 103 Kg]

[Force 42]

[Agility 39]

[Resistance 42]

[Intelligence 60]

[Luck 99]

Techniques

[Second Lung A]

[Iron Body A]

Seeing his stats Jake was happy to see that he was improving a lot because he could gain 1 more stat point in resistance and 1 stat point in agility after winning another major marathon.

That would help Jake a lot in marathons, and also when he needed his agility to run in close-ups, even the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events could be easier with more agility points.

Strength was important for Jake in basketball as well, even though he thought he had more strength than even the strongest Center and players from other positions in the NBA, it was important for him to play and also to increase accuracy in the three shots points.

Jake always trained hundreds of three-point shots every day he could to get a few more stamina bars that he gets as a reward for making many three-point shots, so he could see that after hundreds of tries his accuracy was better now than before with 4 points less strength.

But in the game, he didn't know if this minimal improvement in accuracy could make such a difference, after all, Jake already had an incredible accuracy rate of over 70 percent in games, and that was an average of 8 shots of three points per game.

So he didn't think this accuracy could improve much with just a few strong points, he realized that when the system said it could have nearly 80 percent hit rate with more than 50 strength points it was more or less correct.

After all, 4 strength points didn't make much of a difference in accuracy, so maybe 8 more strength statistics could increase some hit rate points, and the accuracy also depended on his three-point shooting skills and some of his lucky too.

In the NBA he knew that his accuracy would only be lower because the opposing players in defense would only be better and the pressure for him to hit would only be higher, so the strength statistic was just one of the factors for Jake to hit more.

Even so, Jake was pleased because he knew that thanks to the system he had a big advantage over other basketball players, proof of that is the 70 percent hit rate with 8 out of three shots per game.

That number this season could increase to as much as 11 per game and the hit rate would decrease, but Jake would be happy if he scored more points for the Tar Heels team even if he had a lower hit rate.

The other day Jake returned to Miami and celebrated again with his mother and Anna when he got home, Jake still avoided going to the restaurant because in less than 15 days he would go to university again and did not want to cause unnecessary trouble for anyone.

Maybe by the time he got back early next year Lola had already forgotten about him and everything was going to be the same as before, his mother and Anna were so grateful that Jake understood that and didn't bother with it.

They were amazed at how Jake had become arrogant after all he had achieved even though he was so young, he was very rich, handsome, famous, and achieved a number of achievements to make anyone arrogant, but still humble around people.

Also, even though she was excellent as a child, Anna and Eva realized how Jake matured and became a responsible adult over the years, he didn't make many mistakes before.

Jake wouldn't be proud if he knew his mother and Anna thought that of him, because he always had an adult mentality and only his age as a child, so it wasn't for him to have matured with a few years.

But if it was to say he got any better Jake could be happy about it, it could be true that his young body might have affected his personality a little in those years, also had the fact that Jake had suffered so much in his past life and have been very antisocial.

Everything about this life of his was very different from what he experienced in the past life at the same age, he had other opportunities and had another mindset to make different and more correct decisions, not to mention that with his mother not working and happy it was all different.

Jake also had more friends, more money, more work, and even in love relationships he had more experiences than in 40 years of his past life, it was a different and happier life than Jake had.

That day Jake received calls from all his sponsors who were very happy with Jake getting this gold medal, now Jake was even more beloved in America as a sports hero than before.

Jake's nickname was spreading and his fame as a winning athlete was also increasing, because Jake was different at just 18 years old, winning so many times and still playing basketball, even people's interest in marathons and athletics, in general, It was increasing.

The television audience of this World Championships in Athletics was the largest in history and by far the difference, as Jake was running in the marathon the world audience at the World Championships in Athletics peaked.

This was good for everyone, and even the athletic associations in the United States and the world were spreading more about Jake's achievements in promoting the sport in general, which was great for Jake's sponsors.

If the internet were more used in these years this disclosure would be much greater, who was happy with it was also the sports agent of Jake David Falk and who was sad about it was Nike who missed the chance to reach an agreement with Jake before offering a better offer.

Now Jake was a sports idol and was sure to star in the NBA, so Nike's next offer to Jake would have to be a few times bigger to get a deal with him if they didn't lose that chance to the other sports companies of shoes.

Many companies were also thinking about how to get a sponsorship deal with Jake, some even had some unofficial conversations with David Falk about it, but he was clever and didn't confirm anything.

That's because David was confident that Jake's value would increase greatly in the coming years until he entered the NBA, at least he could wait until the end of next college basketball season if the Tar Heels team won again Jake's value would increase even more.

Of course, this was all a hypothesis and none of this could happen, but if Jake played worse this season even if he had a contract signed earlier the company could just forget about that deal when Jake joined the NBA.

Unbeknownst to Jake and David, Alan's company and John's company also planned to offer a new sponsorship deal with Jake in the NBA, even though Jake said he would not renew this NBA contract, they intended to offer Jake a millionaire offer and also appeal to Jake's loyalty that has already been proven in those years of contracting with Tiffany and Clara's companies.

In those years that they had a sponsorship deal with Jake, they had more sales than ever before. Last year the company sales increased by almost 50 percent, so for a big company like theirs that was too much for them to miss out on.

Big companies like theirs usually had to invest millions a year in sponsorship just to stay in the market with competitors as rich as the leading companies in the market, even if they spent more than 10 million to increase their sales by hundreds of millions of dollars would be very worth it.

But that would be hard to come by because the biggest companies in the industry in this area had already realized this and could offer an even bigger offer than they did to Jake, this was something neither Jake nor David Falk could expect.

After all this Jake can spend the next few weeks with his mother just relaxing and talking, he talked to Joseph and Matthew a few times in those weeks, the sales results had not come out, but Matthew already knew it was better than the sales of the last year which excited him and Jake a lot.

So Jake was much more relaxed than anything that happened this year and last year, so by the end of the month Jake was ready to go back to university, this time he knew everything he had to go through that he could hardly relax until the month May of next year.

Eva wasn't so sad about Jake going to university this time either, she knew this was best for Jake and that soon Jake would be back again to spend a few months with her, in fact, Eva was a little relieved because with Jake at university Lola would be quieter.

When Jake returned from university Eva hoped that everything would be resolved and that Lola could finally accept that she couldn't be with Jake anymore, because Eva had a feeling that a lot would happen next year in Jake's life.

She felt that Kate who seemed to be far away, for now, would go into Jake's life at once next year and would not go out anymore, as a woman Eva understood what Kate felt more than Jake knew and even though she wasn't famous as Kate was she knew the heart was the same for everyone.

When Jake returned to university he could meet friends in the dorm who had already returned, they no longer had to stay in the dorm this year because of a university obligation, but they all got so close that no one in the room wanted to leave the dorm.

In fact, they thought it would be Jake who could come out of the dorm because they had already heard that Jake received millions of dollars a year of sponsorship and so should be very rich, but when Jake said no, no one else thought about leaving.

Zack was the most relaxed after returning to college because even though he had stayed home on this vacation he didn't have to travel because his home was close to the university.

So for Zack, nothing changed in this vacation, Jake was very pleased because it seemed that Zack ran almost every day in those university vacation months, even without Jake to inspect Zack still ran because he found he loved it.

Now Zack could run up to 30 km a day if he worked hard and in very good time for an amateur runner, this was much more than other amateur runners needed to do to run a marathon just thinking of completing the marathon.

Jake had promised that if Zack had a satisfactory training time he would take him to run a marathon, so this year he thought and saw that he couldn't take another date to run a marathon in North Carolina.

"Zack, you did very well in your training this year, you may have done more preparation than was necessary because of my training, but even if you ever think about giving up running this training will be great for your health."

"I know that Jake, I appreciate everything you did for me, I know how busy you are and yet you took some of your time to talk to me and bothered to prepare this training for me and encouraged me to run."

"Even though at first it was hard to have you running with me it gave me the strength to carry on and now I know I can say that I love running and have no difficulty running up to 20 km a day without getting tired."

"It's true Jake, if Zack can get a girlfriend even though he's ugly like that is because he has an athletic body for training with you."

Listening to what William said, the three of them laughed together, Zack always played with each other and now didn't even care much that Jake and the others played with him that way, that's how their friends were.

"As I promised you if you want you can go with me to Chicago to run the marathon this year in October, I think you are prepared and this is my gift to you, it is my favorite marathon and I think you will enjoy running there too."

"Of course I want, you can count on me to go there with you, thanks, Jake."

"You deserve this, and you William, want to go with us there?"

"No, I'm not even going to run with you, I'd rather watch on television you win and Zack be ashamed to go to Chicago and not finish the marathon."

The three of them played some more and then went to rest, Jake had not yet returned to training with the basketball team and just the next day would return to do the daily training with Zack.

Aaron was not in the dorm because he was training hard now, after completely recovering from the injury and doing the physical therapy exercises Aaron felt he was doing as well as before the injury.

Now he was training harder because soon the university would be testing to recruit more athletes for the university's American football team, so from what Jake saw from Aaron's training he didn't think he would have trouble joining the team again.

Jake highly respected Aaron who after a year away from football had returned after an injury and what the university did to him, Jake didn't think he could do that and would definitely go to another university after recovering.

Jake was thinking that he might help Aaron with training a few times, after all with his physical statistics and his training, Jake was better than some university quarterbacks.

By the end of September Jake would still have to go to Berlin to participate in this marathon, this was a marathon that Jake wanted to participate even if he didn't have to run all 6 major marathons.

Besides being in a country that has a great history, it was considered the fastest marathon in the world ever, if it wasn't because the Chicago marathon was Jake's favorite he wouldn't mind breaking his own world record in that marathon.

Maybe if he had an interest in doing that and if he was feeling well that day he could break his own world record in Berlin, but it was something he would have to see at the end of the month.

What Jake knew was that he would have to break his world record this year again to shorten his time, because even though he remembers that his record should stay for a few years next year in Berlin a Brazilian athlete named Ronaldo da Costa will only run 3 seconds above this record.

And in 1999 someone will run almost 1 minute below his current record, so by that year that Jake had gotten a lot of stamina and agility stat points, he was thinking of improving his current record.

He could slightly lower the record this year and next year do it again, or he could run at a time that guaranteed his world record would hold for several years, that was the only doubt he had because Jake had the confidence to break his record when he wanted to.

This year at the World Championships in Athletics Jake had finished the marathon with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 2 seconds, because he knew he could win even by slowing down and also making time above 2 hours and 8 minutes.

So when he broke the world record he would impress everyone running more than 2 minutes faster than his time, but that was only for the end of the year and there was still a long time before that happened.

After a few days at the university, classes had started and Jake was finally called to the Dean Smith Center for the basketball team to meet for training, he hoped it would be now that Coach Guthridge would take over the team and say that the coach Dean Smith had left.

Coach Dean Smith's retirement was different from what Jake remembered in his past life, it happened well before and Coach Smith should have decided to retire after winning the NCAA tournament last season.

So Jake who was very discreet received no question from any reporter about Coach Smith's retirement as Jake remembered that several players were asked in Jake's past life.

Just as Jake expected Coach Guthridge and Coach Smith were on the court and the mood seemed to be tense on the court, the rest of the coaching staff were present and even some representatives of the university administration were.

"Well, today you were called because I have a very important announcement to make, after coaching this team for 36 years I decided that I would retire before this year's season started."

When coach Dean Smith said these many players were shocked and few expected it, after that some players were more thrilled and seemed to be almost crying.

Jake knew that some players like Shammond Williams and Antawn Jamison were very fond of Coach Smith and treated him like a father, Vince Carter and even Ed Cota were like that, other players were thrilled as well.

Although Jake had some problems with Coach Smith, he also respected and liked him very much, he was just not shocked and not too sad because before entering university he had expected to train with Coach Smith for only 1 year.

But if he didn't know that before he would be shocked too, other players like Ed Cota who hoped to play the four years with Coach Smith should be more shocked by this, everyone knew he was a great coach who was legendary across the country and not just at UNC.

"Don't be so sad, I had decided that after winning my third NCAA title last year, it was the best retirement gift you could have given me, I'm already 66 years old and I want some time with my family now."

"I already talked to the university while you were on vacation and they agreed to leave Coach Guthridge as a coach for this season at least, I would like to thank you and all of you players who have given me so much joy in my last years as a coach."

"Vince Carter, Shammond Williams, Antawn Jamison, Ademola Okulaja, Ed Cota and Jake Smith, thank you very much for your victories last season and all the other players as well."

After that Coach Smith spoke a few more words and was so thrilled with the players and even Jake was thrilled to hear Coach Smith saying goodbye, it was time for the retirement of one of the best college coaches and all American college basketball.

So the players were excused from training until after another 10 days and Jake learned that the other day Coach Smith would hold a press conference announcing his retirement, the university would be very busy this year with the family of players who would call the university.

After all many of the parents agreed to enroll their children at this university because Coach Smith was on the basketball team, it would now be difficult to prove that Coach Guthridge could do a great job as well.

Jake even called his mother to tell her not to worry and rest assured that Coach Guthridge was very good too, in fact having Jake on this team would help a lot to tell the athletes' parents to trust that the team would play well this year.

Jake remembered when he had dinner and a farewell party at the end of last season for Serge Zwikker and his friend Charlie McNairy, they both graduated from university last season and Jake made sure to organize something to say goodbye to them.

Zwikker was one of the best players on the Tar Heels team last season and the rebounds he took helped Jake and the whole team win a lot of games, and Charlie McNairy has become a good friend of Jake since the beginning of the season.

Charlie was also the one who took Jake into the fraternity and helped Jake get along better with the team, so Jake intended to remain his friend after graduation, of course in the coming years this was hard to come by, but Jake knew about the internet and I counted on that.

In these conversations Jake ended up saying what they both thought would happen if Coach Smith retired, they spent many years with Coach Smith and couldn't even imagine Coach Smith who had been coaching the Tar Heels team for 36 seasons to suddenly retire.

Now Jake saw how shocked all the players were about this, he thought it was good that he was prepared for it and so didn't shake as much as the other players, the other day Jake saw Coach Smith's retirement press conference.

It was amazing to see how many newspapers, magazines and television shows just talked about it in the next few days, Jake saw the university students and alumni thrill about it and even his former player interviews with Michael Jordan.

Coach Smith was a legend in the sport and had an incredible winning record, thanks to Jake too he can wrap up his career with a 34-season finale and just 2 losses and ACC tournament champion and NCAA title.

So it was his third NCAA title in his career, something that was amazing in all college basketball, so it was not wrong to say that perhaps the best college basketball coach of today was retiring.

Coach Dean Smith was also important in the college basketball social issues and was respected by everyone so having lived close to coach Jake could understand more and respect that coach.

Jake was also called in to talk about Coach Dean Smith's retirement by a reporter, as many players in the current team and former players said it was not right that Jake would not talk about it being the main player of the Tar Heels team and college basketball at present.

"Mr. Smith, you knew about Coach Smith's retirement before this announcement."

"They never said any of this to me and Coach Smith didn't say anything to me before the holidays."

Jake had to be careful with that answer because he already knew about it, but since no one had ever talked about it to him it looked like he could be lying if he said he already knew.

"And what are you feeling knowing about this news?"

"I think it's a shame I can't have him coach this season anymore, he's a great coach and was instrumental in winning the team last season, it was an honor to be able to play with the team he coached last year and still be able to win the NCAA title."

"Are you worried about the team this season?"

"No, it's certainly a big loss that Coach Smith has retired and great players have also left the team like Serge Zwikker, but our team is still going strong this season and I trust Coach Guthridge can do a great job too."

"So you are confident that the Tar Heels team can win the NCAA tournament this year?"

"I'm confident about that and I think my team has the ability to do it again like we did last year, but anything can happen in basketball."

"Thanks for the answers, Jake."

Jake's interview was very good showing the confidence he had in him and the team and especially coach Guthridge, he also said only good things about retiring coach Smith who spoke well of Jake also in an interview.

This calmer Jake interview helped the university calm down the players' family and show that everything would be all right, the other star players on the team were very shaken by the revelation that Coach Smith was retiring and seeing calm Jake helped the university.

This was natural because Jake already knew about it, but it showed people that he had better control over his emotions, in the next few days Jake was calmer with all this and continued with his marathon training with Zack.

They also interviewed Eva about Coach Smith's retirement and she was neither shocked nor worried about it, she had rarely seen and spoken with Coach Smith because it was Coach Guthridge who spoke to her more often and Jake told her that everything was fine.

Coach Davis had also returned from Miami and was at the hotel where he had previously lived with his family, he just had to supervise Jake's training because temporarily he had nothing more to teach Jake.

When his basketball team training resumed Jake would stop the current training he was doing at the gym and start using only basketball player training just like the whole team did.

After more than a week of training with the basketball team returned just over 10 days before Jake's marathon, he had already talked about it with Coach Guthridge after everyone learned about Coach Smith's retirement.

Coach Guthridge was the one who took Jake to the team and knew how well Jake was dedicated to training and an excellent player, so he would naturally allow Jake to miss a few days of training to run a marathon.

After all, it was almost certain that Jake would win this marathon and it would only further improve the image of the university and the Tar Heels team, Coach Guthridge had hoped that the team could win the NCAA title this year as well.

That would be great for the university and it would be even better for him as a coach this year, he did not intend to have a long career as coach of the Tar Heels team and if not well could leave even before the end of this season.

But if he could, he would like to win an ACC tournament and maybe also an NCAA tournament, so when he left the team he would be more proud of what he did, and he knew he would have to rely on Jake to do that.

Just as Jake had told Serge Zwikker that it was the team's Center graduated and now the team had no Zwikker-level players for that position, Coach Guthridge was perhaps considering using Makhtar N'Diaye to play as Center if needed.

But upon further thought he decided to do something bolder with the team formation, the Tar Heels team last season was one of the teams that took the most offensive and defensive rebounds.

It was often Zwikker who caught the most rebounds, but that was because he was taller and better positioned most of the time, the other players like Jamison, Carter, Okulaja, Williams, and Jake also being great at rebounding.

Because of Jake on the team and the team having great players many skilled players sometimes had to take turns to play, only Zwikker, Jamison and Jake stayed on the court almost all the time for the extreme quality they had.

But with Zwikker out of the team maybe Okulaja could play longer on the court and Williams, Carter and Ed Cota could take turns in two positions to play longer on the court, Williams and Carter would play longer just like last year and Ed Cota could have more time to play than you had last year.

In games that the team needed to attack more Okulaja could come out and the team would be more offensive than ever with Jake, Jamison, Carter, Williams and Ed Cota playing together, Jake was an excellent PG and was what organized the team, but Coach Guthridge, I knew Jake could play as PF and Center for a few minutes if needed for defense.

Those were the thoughts Coach Guthridge had, and he thought it might work, with Ed Cota on the court playing PG sometimes Jake would have more freedom to score without worrying about positioning.

He had no problem with that last season, but this season Jake would be the most marked player and would have many teams with opponents that could hinder Jake to make the plays.

Of course, this was just a thought of Coach Guthridge, because with the initial formation he thought was Okulaja, Jamison, Carter, Williams, and Jake the team would already be very offensive and would have no problem winning most games for lack of power offensive.

Several positioning and tactical drills were done without coach Guthridge telling the players what he planned to do, even Jake wasn't sure what coach Guthridge could do with the team at the time of the game.

Just like every year some players came back a little out of perfect physical condition, the holidays were a relaxing time for the players and that was normal, naturally just as everyone expected Jake had come back even better than at the end of last season.

Some players realized that Jake was much stronger and faster than at the end-of-season games, which was too terrifying to think about analyzing Jake's incredible season last year.

Players just thought they were lucky to be on the same team as Jake, coach Guthridge was pleased with that and was much more confident for the season with Jake getting even better.

Coach Guthridge knew it was because of the marathons that Jake was in such good shape even though he had just returned from vacation, so he even liked Jake to take part in some marathons to get more excited.

After several days of training with the basketball team at the end of September Jake had to stop to go to Germany in Berlin to run this year's marathon, John was already in Berlin and had already arranged a hotel for Jake to rest a day before the marathon.

Coach Guthridge was kind and let Jake rest 3 days to participate in the marathon in Berlin, Jake accepted only two days and would return to university after running the marathon and resting for some time.

This Berlin marathon was special to many people in different ways, it was Jake's first time running this marathon and being a major marathon he could gain 1 point in endurance and 1 point in agility if he won this marathon.

Another thing John was so excited about that Jake also knew was that an American athlete never won in the Berlin marathon, that was amazing if it was thought that a long time ago American athletes won many marathons around the world.

For a country that was known to be very good at athletics in general never having won a marathon in a country that had one of the world's leading marathons was a source of shame, as was the Tokyo Marathon, but the Berlin marathon was known for a long time much longer as one of the world's leading marathons.

So if Jake won this marathon he would go down in history for a different reason than other marathons, Jake trusted John so he can just rest quietly in the hotel and just wait to run the next day.

The next morning Jake went to the race site to prepare to race in the Berlin Marathon when they saw Jake many were surprised that no one expected him to decide to participate in the Berlin Marathon this year.

He had already raced in London and at the World Championships in Athletics this year and as it was near the time of the new basketball season everyone expected that if Jake was going to run a marathon it would be in Chicago or New York.

Even more so now that everyone following the sport knew that team coach Tar Heels Dean Smith had retired and now Bill Guthridge was the new coach, this was a sensitive moment for Team Tar Heels.

Everyone had realized from his interview that Jake was very calm about Coach Dean Smith's retirement and trusted Coach Guthridge, how Jake had come to Berlin to participate in the marathon was proof that he had confidence.

This was bad news for the other athletes thinking of winning the Berlin Marathon, after a while, the 1997 Berlin Marathon had officially started, Jake was still wondering whether or not to try to break his own world record in this race.

"And another Berlin marathon begins in 1997, the weather is very good today for the marathon and we can expect to see a quick marathon."

"Yes, to everyone's surprise too, Jake Smith is an American athlete and the world's best current marathon athlete came to run this marathon in Berlin, no one ever knows that Jake marathons are going to run this year and this is the fourth marathon Jake participates in."

"True, he has run three marathons this year that are important to the whole world, in Boston, London, and also in Athens now at this year's World Championships in Athletics."

"After winning the gold medal at the World Championships in Athletics and having won the gold medal at the Olympics last year and several major marathons around the world, Jake is more than recognized for being the best marathon player in the world today."

"Jake also has the current marathon world record and can try to break here in Berlin this year."

"I find it hard for him to try to break the record in this marathon, if he tries, I think it will be in Chicago the next time he runs there."

"And why do you think that?"

"It's because he broke the current world record in Chicago last year, it's a path he knows well and has run twice and is much better for him, here in Berlin is the first time he's going to run this marathon and I think hard for him to try to break the world record."

While the commentators talked about him and this marathon, Jake was already running the first few kilometers, he found groups of athletes to run along and ran with them while the other athletes ran at the same pace as him.

Jake was already well known in the marathon world and everyone knew that his pace was very strong at the beginning of the race, so only amateur athletes and those who didn't think of winning ran with him in the beginning.

The other athletes who hoped to perform well watched Jake not to run faster than him in the first few km of the race, after all, if Jake who had a fast pace was behind them it was because these athletes were running far above the pace they intended.

Jake didn't care about that and already expects him to have to run alone in this marathon again, after all, he wasn't running in America and it was hard to find athletes who wanted to run at such a strong pace since the start of the race.

Most usually wanted to start slower and then increase their running pace over the last few km of the marathon, but for Jake who could run the entire marathon at a fast pace if he wanted to, he would rather take advantage of his opponents before finally controlling his final time would have in the marathon.

After 5 km of the marathon, there were still some people trying to run in the same group as Jake, but they were not elite athletes and these people might not even finish the marathon, but at least in the first 5 km, they were in the lead.

Beyond the first 10 km of the marathon, Jake could already feel that this marathon was actually easier to run at a faster pace, had not many turns and was flatter as well as the running track where he trained.

The weather on this day was also very good and Jake could feel that even running alone he was not as tired as in other marathons, of course, he had gained more statistic points since the last marathon, but Jake felt it was really the marathon that was better to run faster.

Seeing marathon conditions this year Jake felt that he could break his world record in this marathon and then if he wanted to break his own record again in the Chicago marathon where he intended to run several times over the next few years.

After running the 20km marathon Jake could feel that it really was better to race in Berlin and he could easily break his running record at a faster pace without getting too tired.

"We have reached almost half of this Berlin marathon and we see Jake again in the lead, this is the racing style he has been doing in various marathons and almost every time he runs at this pace with that advantage of the other runners he wins."

"True, this is the style of running he created as a great stamina athlete like this at the end of the marathon so he can control his energy expenditure by slowing down and winning comfortably."

"He ran that 20 km in less than an hour as he always does in other marathons, it's amazing how much he has control of the running pace, even stopping a few times to hydrate he still keeps up the pace, and as many have noticed Jake didn't even know wears a watch in the marathons he participates in."

"I don't know if he's being a basketball player who has a different training interferes with his running style, but if it's like other marathons Jake can win again today and be the first American athlete to win this Berlin marathon."

Jake went on like this at a strong pace and passed the 30km marathon without slowing down, just after passing the 35km Jake began to slow his running pace slowly, Jake already had a time of 1 hour 41 minutes 40 seconds If he continued at the pace he was running he could finish the race while training which was far below his world record.

Commentators were seeing how Jake came from a fast time, but as they tracked several marathons he ran they knew that at this point in a marathon he slowed his running pace and ended the marathon well below his world record.

"Up to 35km from this marathon Jake has kept up the great pace since he started this marathon, but now as well as in the other marathons he's slowing down and we'll see how soon he will finish this Berlin marathon."

"See how the runner-up Elijah Lagat and the other athletes are also running at a great pace and yet they are not even close to Jake and are over 1km behind him in this marathon."

"This is his racing style, I personally think that if he pushed harder he could finish a marathon at a time well below his world record, but he's the one who knows best the energy he has and how he gets tired in those marathons."

"I've heard some expert theories on athlete mentality that Jake can always slow his marathon pace even though he's doing well in the marathon for what happened in the second marathon he ran in New York."

"He was at first running at a great pace below the world record that was not his at that time and well after the 30 km I don't remember exactly how far he suffered an injury and so this was the only marathon he ever lost in his career coming up in second."

Jake had heard about these theories and found it just funny, he had no trauma and if he wanted to could run at the pace he always ran in training, but he knew it would be at a time far below his world record and Jake thought not It was time for that.

He planned whenever he could improve his race time in training to improve his official marathon time by breaking his own world record, he just thought of improving his record now because he feared that someone would break his current record.

And also because on his next vacation Jake intended to improve his training time after getting all the statistics points in the major marathons, he wanted to run as fast as he could without getting exhausted.

Jake's goal for marathons was to break the 2-hour barrier and to be the best marathoner in the world for many years, Jake thought he was very capable of achieving this with the system helping him.

But one thing about this theory was true because it was after the New York marathon that Jake decided to run the entire marathon at a very fast pace and only in the final km of the race slow down so as not to tire and risk any injuries.

Jake slowed his pace for this marathon, but not much and continued fast because he wanted to break his world record in this marathon, he wanted to be the first American athlete to win in Berlin and mark this marathon breaking the world record and getting the best of this marathon for a few years.

Running in this marathon he personally realized that it was indeed true that this marathon made it easier for athletes to run faster, Jake was starting the time for marathon athletes who would only run faster until the running time was less than 2 hours and 4 minutes would be normal.

After passing the 40km with a strong running pace and a few kilometers to go before the Berlin Marathon was over, commentators finally realized that Jake intended to break his own world record in this marathon, and by the time he ran, it was quite possible that he would succeed.

Almost reaching the 42km race it was almost certain that Jake would break his world record and the commentators and the cheering crowd were celebrating because they also realized what was going on.

"Jake has been running at a very strong pace on the last few meters of this Berlin marathon, it looks like he wants to break his own world record here in this marathon this year."

"It's really amazing to see such a talented athlete, we were talking about how Jake had the ability to break his world record if he wanted to and keep his pace strong, right now slowing down his race is still breaking the world record."

"True, Jake had not been performing very well this year, even though last year broke the world record by running in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 2 seconds this year despite having won the three marathons he ran this year his best time was 2 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds."

"It's more than 1 minute longer than his best time, of course, he made it after running in the London marathon being tired after finishing his first season in college basketball, then winning less than 10 days later in Boston even slower time."

"Last month he won the World Championships in Athletics marathon with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 2 seconds which was 2 minutes longer than his best time last year and today we are seeing Jake running over 2 minutes faster than last month and breaking the world record itself."

"And Jake just won the 1997 Berlin Marathon, he broke his own world record, that's amazing!"

"He finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes 55 seconds, 7 seconds faster than his best time at the Chicago Marathon last year, it's the new marathon world record."

"Great time for this marathon, Jake breaks the world record and also the Berlin marathon record, he is the first athlete in this men's marathon to break the world record."

"Jake is for sure the best marathon athlete in the world today and I think he will stay that way for many more years, he is only 18 this year and is already his second time breaking the world record."

"He's been winning a lot of marathons in the last 3 years and won 6 different marathons besides the Olympics and the World Championships in Athletics, just this year this is Jake's fourth marathon, I think it's already clear it's not luck and he's really talented and will keep it that way."

Jake was very happy to have won this Berlin marathon even though he was already very confident of winning and breaking the world record, he personally saw why this would be known as the fastest marathon in the world in a few years.

If Jake wanted he felt he could finish this marathon in less than 2 hours and 2 minutes if he wanted to, it was certainly a good marathon to break his world record of fewer than 2 hours in the future.

But Jake didn't intend to race anymore in Berlin even though he could win a few more seconds running in this marathon, because it was in Germany that was too far from the United States for him to come running with 3 of the world's largest marathons in America.

Also, Jake found the prize too small to lure him here to race, in Boston the prize was almost 3 times the value, even though he didn't care much for marathon prizes it was clear that he preferred to race where he could win more.

John was also very happy to see Jake break the world record in this marathon, he thought the same as Jake and thought it was more remarkable that he was the first American athlete to win the Berlin marathon and still break the world record in this marathon.

For the companies that sponsored Jake to see him winning another marathon and breaking the world record once again was very good, Eva was also very happy to see Jake win the Berlin marathon and break the world record.

Being Jake's mom who was the best marathon runner in the world Eva sure knew a lot more about marathons now, so she knew how amazing Jake was doing winning the fourth marathon of the year and breaking the world record.

She also knew that Jake still intended to race in Chicago because he told her before going to college, so Eva expected Jake to win the fifth marathon after a few weeks.

Jake received his medal and the $ 110,000 prize because he had broken the world record, if he broke this world record in London he would have received more than $ 300,000 and if it was in Boston he would receive $ 225,000.

But since his goal was not money Jake was just as happy and then went to his hotel and later returned to college, he could go the other day, but he didn't want to get Coach Guthridge in trouble anymore.

Certainly with Jake winning this Berlin marathon which was special to the Americans because he was the first and still breaking the world record took a bit of media focus on coach Dean Smith's retirement and would make the players of Tar Heels more relaxed to train.

Coach Davis was also proud because he was known as Jake's coach and even though he didn't help much it was still special to see Jake winning the marathons, now they had to keep on training because next month Jake would have the Chicago marathon to run.

He was going to race with Zack in this marathon and of course, no one but Jake's friends knew about it, John was even more excited knowing that Jake would run another marathon, Coach Guthridge knew about it too and accepted after seeing Jake breaking the world record.

Admittedly, Jake was in great shape for college basketball season this year, and the next month of training was just to improve the fitness of the other players on the team and regain rapport among the players of that team who played last year.

Even though Coach Guthridge thought of this new way of playing with a different lineup, it was actually a tactic that had already been coached by this team in Coach Smith's time, only they never thought they would use this tactic with Zwikker on the team.

Now the team would just have to train this tactic more and learn how to use it in the game, Coach Guthridge relied on Jake's talent and versatility as a player to organize the team's attacks and still defend well.

If the team could defend against the opposing team's Center would not be a problem to use this tactic, they needed to get more total rebounds as well, both in defense and offense.

Jake celebrated with his roommates the break in the world record he got at the Berlin Marathon, Zack was even more excited to race in Chicago after seeing Jake winning that marathon.

After going out with his colleagues to celebrate Jake returned to rest in the dorm, before bed he wanted to see the rewards he had earned for winning the Berlin Marathon.

"Fate, show me my statistics on my third job."

[Here it is.]

Statistics Jake

[Name: Jake Smith]

[Age: 18 years]

[Job: Runner]

[Height: 2.01 m]

[Weight: 103 Kg]

[Force 42]

[Agility 40]

[Resistance 43]

[Intelligence 60]

[Luck 99]

Techniques

[Second Lung A]

[Iron Body A]

So Jake can see that his agility and resistance increased after this Berlin marathon, now Jake had all the stats above 40 points and his agility was even higher.

Even if it wasn't enough for him to take advantage of the short-haul modes he would certainly have the advantage of long- and medium-distance racing, but most importantly his strength was well over 40 points and for a while, Jake would have the advantage balance between his physical statistics.

Jake also saw that his height really had not changed anymore and nor would it change as the system had said, yet by that time he could have a successful NBA career without having problems because of the height.

Michael Jordan was even smaller than Jake is now and yet became one of the best basketball players in the world catching a lot of rebounds and doing great dunk, Kobe Bryant also got great rebound statistics.

This showed that height would no longer be a problem for Jake and physical statistics would not be a problem for him to fight for rebounds either, so it all depended on Jake to become an NBA star.

So Jake was very grateful to the system that had changed his life and in addition to bringing him to a second chance and giving him every opportunity to get what he wanted even helped to improve the body he had in his past life.

Jake had already gotten everything he wanted at university and knew after this year he could get the training his mother dreamed he would have at university, then he would just have to keep studying differently after talking with the university.

Jake had also developed fully as a player and improved all the way in his first year in college basketball, he would still have this season to improve even further, and Jake had already won the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament.

This year he would try to win again, but if he couldn't, he wouldn't be too upset about it, early next year Jake would also run the marathon in Tokyo and so if he won he could win all major marathons.

So Jake had already made up his mind to enter the NBA draft after this season in mid-1998, he would go to the NBA with his teammates Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, and Shammond Williams.

He would still have to talk to David Falk's sports agent to try to get a deal and so play on the team he wanted, to do that he just had to get the team he wanted to trade him with the team he drafted and so he could play on the team he wanted.

If it wasn't possible Jake would play on the team that he did the same draft, but he knew how hard that would be because even if he had a great performance it would be almost impossible for his team to win the NBA title.

Maybe he couldn't make it to the playoffs playing with a bad team, NBA tuning wouldn't be like high school basketball so he could lead the team to victory with his skill, even at university if Jake wasn't on such a great team as it was Tar Heels he could forget about trying to win the NCAA title.

But Jake would start talking to David Falk only after a few games this season because if such a rumor started it could disrupt the team's spirits to win the NCAA tournament this season.

Jake didn't plan on earning a great salary in the NBA from the start and just wanted to win great sponsor contracts to make more money, but Jake didn't intend to have a long starting contract with any team for a low salary.

But these were things for after this college season that had not even started, Jake continued training calmly with his teammates and working hard to get the team to play well this season.

After a few days of coaching the team, everyone was regaining their ideal condition and the players' match was coming back quickly, Jake didn't need any time to mingle and was still assisting as if the last NCAA tournament game was a few days ago.

With Jake playing so well in training the whole team was getting excited and was also recovering fast, the players were also more confident that the team could perform great this year with Coach Guthridge.

With Coach Smith leaving the team no one expected them to win the NCAA title again this year, which was good because the pressure on the players was so much less so, only Jake still hoped they could win this year.

That's because Jake remembered that in his past life the Tar Heels team performed better this season with Coach Guthridge than last season even though they had more games, they also won the ACC tournament and reached the final four of the NCAA tournament losing in semifinal.

Jake hoped that with him on the team they could play even better or at least perform like this, Jake was confident he could play much better now than in the final NCAA tournament game.

Because he has been able to greatly improve his physical stats since that game, he has gained 5 strength points, 4 agility points, and 4 resistance points, this has greatly improved his physical condition and the other players have realized this.

He had also improved his basketball skills at least a little because he trained every day in the space of his imagination training, in this space he always faced taller and more skilled opponents than himself.

Even though these players' skills were inferior to the best players at the university because they couldn't think well of the moves, playing more than 300 times in this space could only make Jake even better.

Jake was also confident that his teammates were also better this year and more confident after winning the NCAA tournament last year, so they had everything to win again this season.

In the coming days, Jake was still news on sports programs for breaking the world record and because college basketball season was about to start again, everyone was debating whether Jake and the Tar Heels team would play as well as last year after retirement from coach Dean Smith.

Meanwhile Jake was still training with the Tar Heels team and also with Zack for the nearest Chicago marathon, no one expected that this year after breaking the world record Jake still wanted to participate in another marathon.

Especially because it was so close to the start of the new college basketball season, but Jake had already made up his mind to participate in every Chicago marathon he could because he liked this marathon so much.

This year he had still promised to run this marathon with his friend Zack, even though the two of them had quite different performances in this marathon and could not even run side by side.

Maybe when he went to the NBA he could no longer participate in marathons like these and had to run only when he was on vacation outside of the NBA basketball season, if that happened he would have to choose another marathon to run forever.

If everything happened as he hoped, maybe next year he was on an NBA team and could no longer run the Chicago marathon, Jake really hoped he could get into the NBA so it was quite possible that it would happen.

Jake continued training in the coming weeks and so the day he went to Chicago with Zack arrived, he had talked to John before and two plane tickets were already prepared for them and hotel reservations too.

Just like last time Jake would rest a day earlier in Chicago and after the marathon, he would leave, but Jake had already talked to Zack and his friend would have to stay in Chicago for more than two days after the marathon.

This was for safety reasons as this was the first marathon Zack would run and a plane trip right after finishing the marathon was not recommended for anyone, Jake had a very strong body because of the system and feared none of it, but cared about his friend.

Zack understood Jake's cause for concern, and since Jake was practically his coach for this marathon he decided to wait these two days before returning to college, it was for his safety and that was never too much.

Of course, the two hoped that Zack could finish this marathon in a good time after all this training, Jake had no doubt about it and even Coach Davis believed that Zack could finish this marathon easily.

Zack's goal for this marathon wasn't too bold and he just wanted to finish before 4 pm, not a time for elite athletes, but for those who would run the first marathon was a great time.

The time limit for this race was 6 1/2 hours so Zack was quiet to finish this marathon without having to worry about the time, his main goal was to finish this marathon and then finish in less than four hours.

So anyway they were going to celebrate after the marathon that it was almost certain that Zack could complete those more than 42 km, they both went to Chicago and Jake arrived at the hotel discreetly as usual.

The hotel now dared not disclose Jake's address to anyone and even if he had it in town, they were glad Jake stayed at the hotel again after what happened the first time a reporter asked to speak with him at the hotel.

With Zack by his side no one would expect it to be Jake since he always participated in marathons and stayed at the hotel alone, Jake knew he could rest easy that night, but Zack would not sleep because of the nervousness of having his first marathon.

"Zack, you didn't have to be nervous because I guarantee you are prepared for this marathon and it will end for sure."

"Yes, I believe you and I also have confidence that I will be able to finish this marathon, but I still can't be more relaxed."

"It's normal to get nervous before running a marathon which is what you always wanted to do and now it's close to being able to finish your first marathon and it's still Chicago that is one of the most important marathons in the world."

"If you keep talking like that you'll make me even more nervous."

"That's why I'm saying this, you are sure to be able to finish this marathon and be proud to tell everyone that your first marathon was in Chicago, but if you get nervous and can't get enough sleep it can make it harder for you."

"So I suggest you calm down and try to sleep, because you will also try to reach your goal of finishing this marathon before 4 hours, imagine how amazing that would be."

Jake knew well what Zack was like and so he said that to make his friend more excited and get to sleep, just as Jake expected Zack got more excited and went to try to sleep in his room to be rested for the marathon the other day.

Jake had to do this to sleep in his room quietly and be fine to run the next day, he was also nervous before running a marathon, but it was far less than the confidence he had with the daily training he had.

He knew that if he just ran, as usual, he could win a marathon easily, so he just had to calm down and run what he trained to be able to win, the helping system also made him calmer by watching his pace in the race.

The next morning the two of them went to where this year's Chicago Marathon would be, Jake can see that Zack had been able to rest well for this marathon and so thought that his friend was ready to perform well in that marathon.

After a while, the two were ready for the start of the marathon and just before the marathon began that other athletes realized that Jake was running in that marathon too.

No one expected it, but no one was too surprised because Jake always did it in running marathons that nobody expected, at least in Chicago everyone could expect him to show up for running two years into that marathon.

Zack was ignored by everyone for being unknown and because Jake wasn't talking to him to let Zack focus before the start of this marathon, Jake and Coach Davis had already given all the tips they could to him and now it was just time to run.

The marathon started and Jake soon ran ahead and left Zack behind, that would have to be done because Jake's pace was too strong for Zack to finish this marathon almost twice as long as Jake.

"And began the 1997 Chicago Marathon, one of the largest marathons in the United States and the world, which this year expects to have the largest number of athletes competing in history."

"Yes, there will be the largest number of athletes competing and the largest number of foreigners as well, and one of those responsible for that happened came by surprise to participate in this marathon."

"It should come as no surprise that Jake Smith is participating in this marathon for the third year in a row since making his debut in that marathon in 1995, but after running less than a month in Berlin and breaking the world record by winning that marathon no one expected him to be here this year again."

"Jake already said he loved to run this marathon and is proving this year again, and we know this marathon also loves him who has won in the last two years and could win this year again."

"Jake is for sure the biggest favorite, we'll have to see after two hours if Jake will leave the Chicago marathon as a winner again for the third time."

Jake started running at a strong pace after leaving Zack behind at the start of this marathon, soon as if agreed in advance several athletes started running in the group formed to run along with Jake.

That was one of the reasons he liked to race in Chicago and America, he didn't expect it to be, but he always did when he met people who ran with him.

Jake was also surprised to see that two well-known American athletes who would be in the top 20 were running in the same group as him, was Jerry Lawson who had already won the California Marathon in 1993 and Todd Williams who participated in two Olympics and two World Championships. in Athletics.

They both knew well how Jake was running at a perfect running pace and wanted to run with him all through this marathon, they didn't know if they would keep up with Jake until the end, but if they could hold on until he slowed it was almost certain that they would be in the top 5.

Jake was happy about it and also a little nervous, he hoped the two athletes could run this marathon at the same pace as he ran, if he kept that pace throughout the Chicago marathon he knew he would win and they couldn't keep up with him.

But to do that he would have to break the world record again in this marathon and make much better time than in the last marathon in Berlin, so he hoped the two would just run at his pace and not try to beat him in the final kilometers.

Of course Jake didn't expect them to simply stop running and let him win because the marathon was a competition and not a friendly race for everyone to run together, having other athletes running at the same pace as he was a valid tactic to win the marathon.

With a group running along with him Jake could save as much stamina and energy as he could in this marathon after he learned some techniques with Coach Davis and running with other athletes he could keep pace running smoothly.

The athletes running with Jake were also elite athletes and with this steady pace even running faster they could easily follow, after the 10km of this marathon, Jake's group was the leader of the race and far ahead of the other athletes.

"Jake has been running at a strong pace in this marathon as is his characteristic in marathons after 10km of the race his group is the leader and I can recognize some elite athletes running in his group."

"Yes, this has happened several times when Jake ran marathons in America, in the United States. Jake as the best athlete in the world and being an American is a kind of idol to other athletes and well respected even by other American athletes."

"Everyone knows that Jake is known for running at a strong pace and also for the great stamina he has, so in these races the other elite athletes who didn't think about winning marathons ran at the same pace as Jake for more than half of the time the marathons."

"But some elite athletes running with Jake in this marathon may be thinking of winning and not just keeping up with Jake's pace for more than half of that marathon, we can see for the first time in a long time Jake having a hard time winning a marathon."

The weather was great in this marathon and not tiring the other athletes of this marathon, it was great weather to break various types of records, while Jake was leading this marathon as always running with a group of elite athletes, Zack was far behind in the marathon running as it had trained.

Zack's pace was just under 5 minutes 42 seconds per km, that's the average Jake and Coach Davis told him to run, but they knew Zack would be unable to keep up a steady pace like Jake could do.

So they told him to try to analyze his time every 5 km of race and adjust to knowing how his race pace was, so in the final kilometers of the race if he realized he still had a lot of energy he could run as fast as he could. he could and try to finish the Chicago marathon before 4 o'clock.

This was quite possible because Zack was already running more than 20km a day running at a much faster running pace than this, so he should have enough energy to run this marathon at a slower pace than he normally did.

Jake and Coach Davis knew that in the marathon the athlete got more energy because they knew they were participating in a marathon and because of the crowd, so it was certain that Zack could easily complete this marathon even if he could not do it in 4 hours.

Another strategy that Jake and Coach Davis came to him was to run along with other athletes in groups to save energy and hydrate when he could, as Zack ran at a time when most athletes ran close he could always find a group to run.

Running with Jake he learned a little how-to keep his running pace and having a watch he could always control himself, when he went through the 5 km running he saw that he was running at the right pace and so was happy.

In the leadership group, Jake still ran with the other athletes and felt great even though he ran more than 15km in this marathon, the other elite athletes didn't look tired even running at the same pace as Jake.

After running for many km he stopped thinking about what he would do at the end of the marathon and just controlled himself to run normally, even if he had to break his world record to win was not a bad thing for him.

After all Jake was already thinking of increasing the pace of his training on his next vacation, and Jake was already sharing the focus of his training with other long-distance modalities besides marathons.

After winning the 6 marathons major Jake would have already won everything he could in the marathon world and would only have the records to break that could cheer him up, of course, the Olympics and World Championships in Athletics would also make him excited to win a medal of gold for his country.

Jake had already started his training to run the 10,000 meters and soon would start training to run the 5,000 meters and maybe before the next Olympics he started training to run the 1,500 meters, he already had the agility to achieve this.

Even after passing the 20km in this marathon the other athletes in the same group of Jake did not look tired and were already several minutes ahead of the other athletes of this marathon and could be in the top 20 that was their goal, this good weather for Running also helped everyone.

"Almost half of this Chicago marathon is over and Jake's group is still leading the way quietly, it's great weather here in Chicago so these athletes can take many more km before they get tired."

"True, with this climate and great athletes running in this group we could be seeing the top 10 of this marathon and maybe some of these athletes will make Jake have to work harder to win and maybe break the world record again this year."

"Okay, a lot of marathon experts and commentators like me think Jake actually has the ability to run far below what he's been running, even in Berlin a lot of people realized that after winning breaking the world record Jake didn't even look like being tired."

"Yes, if you think he ran very close to that when he was 16 at the first marathon in Chicago, it is natural to think that after more than two years of training and also developing his body because we realize how Jake grew so much taller in those years he can run much lower than in that marathon."

"Admittedly, Jake is the best marathon runner of this decade and now and many think this is just the beginning and that Jake can keep winning for another 20 years if he wants to, so Jake is perhaps the best marathon runner ever."

Many really hoped that the athletes running in Jake's group would endure racing with him up to 35km and so focused on Jake keeping a strong pace and breaking the world record again.

While Jake was running nearly halfway through the race Zack was about 10 km from the marathon, he still easily found running groups that ran at the same pace as him, but the groups lagged behind or would go forward and he just focused on keeping up with him.

Like Jake, Zack trained on an athletic track and so always ran alone and was used to it, plus the better marathon weather and the crowd just helped Zack run better and use up a lot less energy.

So when he could run with the groups he saved a lot of energy and knew that he could run much more than he normally did in training, as Zack was used to running a lot more than 20 km every day at a faster pace than this he was running smoothly after 10 km.

After the 30km marathon, Jake's group was even further ahead in the lead, after so many kilometers of marathon some athletes from Jake's group were already tired and thinking of leaving the group to slow down the running pace.

But the best athletes could still take a few more km if not so many, seeing that Jake was still thinking he might have to break his world record, but he would win this marathon easily nonetheless.

If he broke the world record a little too soon he wouldn't have to worry about it for years to come and so Jake just wanted to know about winning this marathon.

"More than 30 km of this marathon has passed and Jake's group is still in the lead, but we can see that some athletes in this group are already thinking of leaving the group and are very tired, others are tired but they can take it for a few more kilometers."

"I think the image of this group of Jake in this marathon shows how Jake is the best marathoner in the world today, in this group all are elite athletes and some are already very tired and will leave the group."

"Others are elite athletes who have already reached several marathons in the top 10, Jerry Lawson who has already won a marathon 4 years ago, and Todd Williams who has had 2 Olympics."

"These athletes are the best athletes in the world and any one of them can win a marathon if it's on a good day or a lesser-known marathon, and these athletes are very tired too and can handle running at a pace for just a few km."

"And in this group, there is Jake who is running smoothly with no sign of fatigue, looks like he's running the 10km race and is still in the beginning, and Jake finishes the marathons like that without looking tired."

Jake didn't know that the commentators were analyzing his tiredness to know if he could run faster, but he didn't care that the others knew he could run faster.

One day Jake would still try to run under 2 hours to break his world record again, by which time everyone would naturally know that running in less than 2 hours and 6 minutes was very easy for himself in training.

After passing the 35km race almost all the athletes in his group were already behind and running at a slower pace, but Jerry Lawson and Todd Williams were still in his group.

They were both very tired and could be left behind at any moment, but they were resisting waiting for Jake to slow his running pace, everyone who saw Jake's last marathons would never expect to see that two athletes were running at the same pace as him afterward of 35 km.

Jake had expected it and slowed his running pace just as he had in Berlin, both of them relieved when they saw that Jake had slowed down before they got too tired.

Unlike Berlin Jake slowed his running pace even more because he did not intend to break his record if it was not necessary, they also slowed at the same pace as Jake and saw that they could continue running like this.

Jake thought that if they could keep up with him to the final kilometers he would just accelerate his race pace again and he was sure he could win, it was their merit to be able to race along with Jake in this marathon and he had to agree not to win with a great advantage. as in the other years.

"That's amazing, Jake has already slowed his running pace as he has done in every marathon he has run, in that 35 km he slowed down to run until the end of this Chicago marathon."

"And even at this point Todd Williams and Jerry Lawson are still running in the same group as him, it's a historic moment for this Chicago marathon where three American athletes are running for first place and we can have the three American athletes in the top 3 at this marathon."

"Yes, even though Jake had been running at a much higher than normal pace before, after that 35km he slowed down to less than the other athletes in this marathon are running, and that's what the two American athletes were expecting."

"With just over 7 km to finish this marathon, I think it's quite possible that the three will continue to run together until the end."

The two American athletes who were running with Jake didn't think that way, they just wanted to keep running at that pace until the end, but they didn't think that would be possible because the pace they ran for 35 km was so intense.

So they didn't even think about trying to beat Jake in this marathon that was still running smoothly even after 35km of the marathon, Jake noticed it too and kept running quietly.

He would be happy if they and the other two American athletes were in the top three in this marathon, Jake was practically doing the work of setting the pace for the other two athletes by the end of the marathon in which he would win.

While Jake was already getting ready to race the final kilometers of the marathon, Zack had not even reached halfway through the marathon, yet he had already been through the 15km for some time and was very happy with the pace he was running up to that time proof point.

Unlike Jake, Zack not only had a group of people running with him throughout the race, but he also had to switch between groups while preoccupying with maintaining his running pace, naturally several times he lost his pace following someone in a group.

But he could always recover in the next few kilometers, so even if he lost energy doing that he could run as scheduled, because of the training routine he had Zack had not tired running to the 15 km of this marathon because he was running at a slower pace than he trained.

Also, Zack followed Jake's tips for running in the best places in this marathon and running with the groups helped him save energy, Jake and Coach Davis said that if he could run more than 30 km without being too tired, he was sure would end the marathon.

Zack kept running at his pace up to 20 km, at this point in the marathon he knew that Jake should be close to finishing the marathon because almost two hours had passed, he hoped that Jake would win easily.

After running the 40 km marathon Jake was already running alone in this marathon final, the two American athletes almost managed to follow Jake to the 40 km, but got tired before and decided to slow down even more to try to secure the second and third place.

The two athletes knew that without Jake they probably couldn't make it into the top 5, so they didn't want to keep giving Jake more pressure and letting him run smoothly.

Even though Jake knew he would win this marathon and the other two athletes were tired, he was still nervous because he was not used to running with other athletes in the final km of any marathon.

As soon as he was alone in the lead he could relax and keep up his pace to arrive at a time he had planned to finish this marathon, as he ran in a group for almost the entire marathon Jake was still full of energy in the final kilometers of the marathon.

Near the 42 km, Jake was already calm that this marathon was almost won by him, so he wondered only if Todd Williams and Jerry Lawson were still in the top three and if Zack could keep up his running pace for this marathon.

"We are nearing the end of this Chicago marathon, Jake has already crossed the 42 km and is in the final meters to win, it was a different marathon than we are used to with Jake participating."

"He ran almost the entire marathon with a group of elite athletes who are still in the top 20 in this marathon and up to nearly 25 km with American athletes Todd Williams and Jerry Lawson."

"The two are still vying for second place with athlete Khalid Khannouchi coming in fourth to compete for those first places with them."

"And at that point, Jake Smith finishes the 1997 Chicago Marathon in the first place, another marathon won for Jake in his short and brilliant marathon career, and his third straight victory in Chicago."

"Jake finishes this marathon with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 58 seconds breaking the marathon record of himself last year, 3 seconds close to the world record."

"Jake's great performance in less than a month after the last marathon in Berlin, I think after this marathon he will focus on college basketball so hopefully next year we can see Jake winning more marathons."

"Now Todd Williams finished third in this marathon and Jerry Lawson came in second for Todd in the final meters, Khalid Khannouchi almost got third, but still finished fourth in that marathon."

"It's been a long time since we've seen American athletes getting in the top three places of a major marathon like this, and Jake was the one who set the right pace for them to be in the top three."

Jake was delighted to see that the other American athletes had been in the top three along with him who had won, he had been hoping for a while and this marathon was great for him after all.

John who was following Jake was happy to see Jake win and was tense throughout the marathon seeing two athletes competing with Jake for first place and only relaxed when he saw Jake taking advantage.

He knew well that this was Jake's last marathon in 1997 and now Jake would focus only on the Tar Heels team and college basketball, this was a great year for Jake and also his sponsors such as John's company.

Jake and Eva's friends were also nervous seeing the end of this marathon that was different than in the other years and were happy to see that Jake had won in the end like every year.

Jake received $ 125,000 in prize money for winning and breaking the Chicago Marathon record of his own after celebrating and snapping a picture with the other two American athletes who took second and third place.

However unlike the other marathons, Jake did not leave soon after receiving the prize for the hotel, he asked John who had saved him a chair he had brought and just sat in a place he asked to stay for the marathon organization.

The marathon organization naturally liked Jake to stay longer and arranged a place for him near the finish line and safely so that no accidents would happen.

Jake was naturally waiting for his friend Zack to finish his marathon, he had to support his friend and because he also trained along with Zack and was almost a coach for him, Jake knew that Zack would complete this marathon, which he was hoping for was that Zack could finish before 2 hours as he intended.

So Jake just intended to sit around waiting for Zack, he wasn't even too tired and after having a natural drink from Tiffany's company he was relaxed, then he would have to go back to university and couldn't stay with Zack for the next few days.

But they couldn't do what they wanted, unlike the other normal marathon athletes. Jake was very famous and beloved by the public, he played in college basketball that was the goal of thousands of young people and still participated in movies besides winning many marathons and win gold medals representing the United States.

So after seeing the fans asking him for an autograph, Jake got up and went to where the people who were watching the marathon were and spent several minutes signing autographs for anyone to ask him, luckily the smartphones had not been invented otherwise Jake would have to spend a lot more time taking pictures with others.

Some fans were still taking pictures of him with Matthew's company digital camera and Jake found it interesting that he was seeing so many people using Matthew's new and old digital camera proving how he had changed the time he knew and his success from Matthew's company.

Zack kept on running very hard and after 30 km he started to get more relaxed because he wasn't very tired yet and if what Jake and Coach Davis said was true he would surely have the energy to finish this marathon.

A few km back he had already heard that Jake had won by listening to the fans talking about it, Zack was very happy to hear that Jake had won another marathon and it gave him even more energy.

Zack knew better than anyone how Jake trained hard to run these marathons and always win beyond his basketball team training, so Zack always thought Jake deserved everything he had achieved and should achieve much more.

So Zack had more confidence to achieve his personal goal because he also trained every day like Jake and still had Jake's help in his training, so he didn't think he was missing anything compared to other amateur athletes running in up to 3 hours all marathons.

Even more, than in this marathon, he was not tired after the 30 km and was managing to maintain a medium pace similar to what he had agreed with Jake before this marathon, Zack could still find groups to run with himself at this point of the marathon.

After the 40 km marathon, less than 4 hours had passed, it was still 11 minutes to the 4 hours of marathon and Zack was already feeling very tired, even training every day for over a year Zack still could not compare to the other amateur athletes who had been running for several years.

Plus it was the first time Zack had tried to run a full marathon before 4 hours, so even though running at a pace below training he felt very tired.

But Zack knew what it was like to feel this tiredness several times that he got so tired in training, so Zack knew he could finish this marathon easily even though he was tired.

But Zack's goal a little over 2 km away was not just to complete the marathon but to finish this Chicago marathon before 4 hours, so he couldn't just keep running like this and had to increase his running pace a bit finals.

He had already arranged this with Jake and Coach Davis who if he felt he could run faster over the last few kilometers he could try, after reaching 42 km Zack was feeling much more tired from having increased his pace.

Even though he was feeling happy because it was still a long time before 4 hours and he was about to finish this marathon, Zack felt proud and thought it was worth the many tiring workouts he did waking up very early every day.

It was just the first marathon he participated in and was soon the big marathon in Chicago and he was finishing before 4 hours, was certainly a source of pride for any amateur athlete.

Zack gained even more energy when he saw Jake getting up to wait for him, it was Jake who had encouraged him to participate in this marathon, training with him and teaching him various things, now Jake brought him into this marathon and was even waiting for himself Jake was very busy.

Zack managed to finish this marathon before 4 hours and everyone finally knew who Jake was waiting for nearly 2 hours in this marathon, after Zack arrived he was exhausted and couldn't even breathe properly and Jake gave his friend a break before talking to him.

"Congratulations Zack, I'm very happy to see that you managed to finish your first marathon and still did what you wanted and finished this Chicago marathon in less than 4 hours."

"Thanks, Jake, if I got it it was thanks to you, I'm very happy and never expected to feel such a thrill after completing a marathon."

"I know how it is, I've always loved running too, you are feeling it because you did something you wanted and worked hard to achieve that goal, that sense of accomplishment is proof that you love running too."

"Yes, I will continue training and I will run in other marathons, I hope we will continue training after that, and congratulations on winning this marathon, you deserve it."

After Zack had finished the marathon Jake had nothing else to do at this place and left after saying goodbye to everyone, he had already spoken to John a few hours earlier and John left because he had nothing else to do after Jake finished the marathon.

Before leaving John said he had taken care of Jake's and Zack's return tickets as well, John taking care of Zack was just a favor of his company to Jake and Jake insisted that Zack wear the same uniform he always wore with corporate brands who sponsored him.

After this marathon, Jake rested for just a few hours at the hotel before flying to college and letting Zack recover from this Chicago marathon, now less than a month before the Tar Heels team's first game in the new college basketball season.

The players of the team had already practically recovered their perfect form and were ready to play the first game, this was normal because even though the players were resting and celebrating the great season they had, they did not neglect their fitness so much because they knew who had to play in November.

Unlike last year when new players were preparing to play as starters, this season the players would be the same as last season, so their rapport was very good even before the season started.

Everyone on the team already knew that Jake was a great player and recognized his talent and that Jake was a better player than they currently, besides playing in the position of PG Jake was the team leader of course.

Even though Jake didn't want to be the team captain and let Coach Guthridge decide who he was, he was just his sophomore year as a team player and would soon leave college so there was no point in him being the team captain this season.

In addition, Jake had to admit that he was unable to be a good team captain, all he could do to help the team as captain he could do just by playing normally and without having to be the captain.

He would still be the team leader and still strive for the team to be united and well into the games, after all, Jake and the whole Tar Heels team hoped they could be the champions this season as well.

The team training went on well and Jake continued training as he had arranged with Coach Davis every day, two days after the marathon Zack had returned very happy and proud of what he had achieved and all of Jake's roommates congratulated Zack as well.

Even his brother Brett showed up to say he was proud of Zack and that made him very thrilled, after that as he had promised Zack continued training with Jake every day, Zack's goal was to finish the next marathon before 3 hours.

So after several weeks of training came the day of Jake's first game this basketball season, all of the Tar Heels players were very excited and nervous about this first game, especially when they remembered that the Tar Heels team lost their first game of the last season.

So they didn't know if they should expect to win this game as they should do or just lose to maintain good luck, of course, this was a team joke because no one would lose just because of superstition and even if they wanted Jake and Coach Guthridge they wouldn't accept.