Jake Vacations
And Jake was like that too, he was not arrogant, but he didn't like it when he had to buy a house in Miami and they said to and showed him only the cheapest houses for him, of course, Jake wasn't picky and would probably choose one of the houses that were for sale.
The real estate agent showed Jake homes in Beverly Hills, Beverly Park, Hidden Hills, Malibu Colony Beach and many other neighborhoods, Jake saw incredible homes and also saw smaller houses and very expensive and small apartments just because they were in a prestigious neighborhood.
So Jake made it clear that he just wanted to buy mansions and didn't want small houses and apartments, Jake was not against buying apartments, but for him, it wouldn't do because he wanted to buy a mansion in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood just for the sake of security.
He didn't want to live in a place that had little security so as not to risk that what happened in Miami would be repeated again, and he knew that the most prestigious neighborhoods were safer.
So after two days of a lot of searching, Jake found the house that was perfect for him, it was a mansion in Bel Air that the real estate agent just showed Jake to impress him because this was one of the most expensive mansions in Los Angeles.
But he didn't expect Jake to be enchanted by this mansion and ask to see it, the real estate agent luckily was really a man with many contacts and got the keys to the mansion to show the land to Jake.
It wasn't just the mansion that was big, the lot was also very big and that's why the mansion was so expensive, after all, it was in a prestigious neighborhood in Los Angeles and was even on a lot that was a kind of condominium with high security.
But Jake wanted this mansion precisely because of that, it was much bigger than in Miami and Jake thought what he wanted to do with this mansion as soon as he saw it, as the real estate agent saw that Jake was really interested in the mansion he decided to say the price of the mansion.
It was a Mansion in Bel Air, 73,000 m, 15 million dollars, the house had 7 large rooms with one bathroom in each room, 13 bathrooms throughout the house, the house had an elevator and a garage for seven cars.
Seeing this Jake started to imagine how he could use all this land for him, Jake saw that he had a house for employees and a large area, Jake also looked inside the mansion that was as big as it looked and started to think about what he would do.
On the ground, there were two houses for employees, an office, a swimming pool and a free area that Jake would order to build a basketball court and an Olympic running track just as it was at his home in Miami.
The house would still have a cinema room, library, and gym, in addition to a soundproofed musical studio and completely assembled like the professional, Jake naturally thought of Kate when he thought of buying this house.
Even if he didn't end up dating her, Jake could return to playing the piano and the instruments he enjoyed playing in his past life and had no opportunity and time to play on his second chance.
$ 15 million could certainly seem like a lot of money, but Jake didn't think so because he remembered looking at house prices in the future and a mansion like this would cost close to $ 40 million in 2019.
"I am going to buy this mansion, if you can prepare the mansion purchase contract and the land deed as soon as possible I would appreciate it, I need to travel in a few days and I will hire some companies to prepare some renovations in the house for the next months."
The real estate agent was even more shocked when he heard that Jake said he would buy the mansion, but he was smart and realized that Jake had the money to buy the mansion and was not kidding.
If this mansion were to be sold he would not receive a large percentage of commission because of the high value of the house, but would still receive 5 percent which was $ 750,000 on the sale of this mansion.
Because of that, the real estate agent was very efficient and in a few days he was able to prepare the sales contract and Jake paid to receive the contract for the house, the real estate agent was very happy with this because he had guaranteed an income to make him well for two years until.
So he was smart and left his contact to Jake in case he wanted to buy another mansion in the future, Jake would definitely buy other houses in the future, especially when he had billions of dollars that he was not sure where to spend.
After buying this mansion Jake still had one more thing to do, he always wanted to buy a great car, but he always had to save money to invest, but this time Jake didn't have to worry about it because he knew he would still receive the money NBA and Matthew's company profits.
So Jake didn't want to hesitate any longer and decided to buy a car that he always wanted, but Jake had a problem that he didn't find almost any car from that time really beautiful, and a car other than a house was not a good investment.
Unless he wanted to buy an old car that always appreciated, but Jake didn't think about doing it, so Jake thought that in the future he would have to buy some cars that he really dreamed of buying.
Luckily for Jake one of the cars he liked the most even in the future was still sold, it was the McLaren F1 that was always one of the fastest and most praised cars of that time, it was one of Jake's favorite cars that were very beautiful.
In addition to being beautiful, it was fast because it could easily reach 221 mph (356 km / h) at full speed, it could reach 0–60 mph (97 km / h) in 3.2 s, in addition, it was practical because it had three places different from others cars that reached that speed.
Of course, Jake wasn't going to accelerate much because of what happened to him in the past, he was lucky to have overcome his trauma with cars, so he didn't intend to go over 80 mph even in places that it was safe for him to accelerate more.
But a man's pride was a strange thing because even though he knew he couldn't accelerate, a man sometimes liked having a car that he knew could reach 221 mph.
Jake really liked that car and didn't think about selling it or thought of the car as an investment, but he knew that this car would become a collector's dream and could be worth up to $ 20 million at auction.
This was the last year that this car would be manufactured because it was too expensive even for the wealthy who liked a car, but Jake didn't think it was expensive because in the future a $ 3 million car would not be considered as expensive.
Jake was lucky to be in Los Angeles and easily found a place of imported cars that had contact with McLaren, Jake didn't take long and chose a yellow McLaren F1 that he liked a lot.
In a few hours, Jake bought the car for 1.2 million dollars, so Jake had a car that he always wanted and also had a house that he always wanted to have, it was two more dreams that had come true in just one day.
Jake would have to wait a few months before he could receive the car and be able to drive with him, but he was in no hurry and asked them to leave the car at the import store and he would come back to get the car right there.
After solving his house and his car Jake still had $ 24.4 million and had to save that money to make the investment next year in the Google company, next year Jake would receive the money from the NBA and also from the company from Matthew even when it was to invest in the Google company, so Jake was cool.
The other day Jake finally traveled to Miami and would stay with his mother until the day of the Chicago marathon would be in October, so Jake had less than a month to stay home, but after the marathon, he intended to stay home until that he be called to start training on the Los Angeles Lakers team.
Eva was very happy when she saw that Jake had come home, it was almost 3 months since the last time they saw each other, Eva didn't think Jake would still come home that year, she thought that after filming he would go to Los Angeles to play in the NBA.
Jake had said he would come home and did as he promised, Jake told Eva that maybe he would still be there for another 3 months and she was happy with that, Jake had called Coach Frank Davis to say he was in Miami and would be in Miami for a few months.
Jake had to train before the Chicago marathon in which he would run with Zack, otherwise, he would be suspicious if he won the marathon even though he had not trained for almost 6 months after the marathon Jake would ask to improve his time in training the marathons and also for modalities of 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters.
Jake would not allow Davis to deny his training again, after all, he almost missed his chance in the last year because Coach Davis thought it was better to wait a little longer, Jake didn't even know what could happen in the next few years.
If a director asked him again to shoot another movie he liked or a movie he thought could be a success then Jake would do it, so Jake had to enjoy this end of the year which would probably be his last chance to improve his training.
Jake was concerned because they were almost at the end of 1998 and he was less than 2 years old until the Sydney Olympics in Australia that Jake wanted to at least compete in the marathon, in the 5000 meters, and in the 10,000 meters.
Fortunately for Jake, the Olympics would begin just before the NBA season began, so Jake didn't have to worry about losing any official games and could easily compete in athletics competitions.
Jake had no hope of being chosen for this Olympic basketball team in 2000, after all, he knew that a young player had little chance of being chosen on a team that had Jason Kidd and Gary Payton he would not be chosen to play.
After all, besides the two being excellent players who played for many years in the NBA, they had experienced in the Olympic basketball team and that is why Jake didn't think it was fair that he should be chosen.
But he would try to be chosen in 2004 and was confident that he would be chosen if he won the NBA title by the Los Angeles Lakers team, until then if Jake managed to win 3 gold medals at the 2000 Olympics he would be an athletics legend.
In the early days in Miami Jake told his mother everything that had happened in the last few months and said his expectations for the film he had participated in, he also told her about Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne with whom he had befriended during filming.
Eva also told Jake several things about the restaurant, in fact, Eva's life in Miami was a routine of going to the restaurant every day and with a lot of work, luckily she and everyone who worked with her loved it and so they could continue happily.
Eva said that they changed the menu again that year just as she had already told Jake that she would, and as always the new menu was approved by customers, as always Jake was happy if Eva was happy.
After that Jake said he had bought a house in Los Angeles where he would play in the NBA and also that he had bought a car, Eva just said she wanted to see his house and his car in the future and Jake promised that he would take her to Los Angeles to see his house.
Eva believed in Jake and knew that he knew how to take good care of the money he had, even though she didn't know when money Jake had she knew it was tens of millions of dollars and she had never seen Jake spend it irresponsibly.
After Jake joined the NBA Eva knew that Jake would never again have money problems with the investments he had, she was proud to know that Jake was finally having a better life after working so hard.
Jake just stayed home with his mom resting a little at home where he could be at peace, but after two days Jake knew it was no longer time to rest when Coach Davis arrived in Miami.
Jake had already told Coach Davis that he would live in Los Angeles and Coach Davis intended to buy a house to live with his family there, after all, he had been living with his family for the past few years in a hotel that was close to Jake's university.
Jake had offered to buy him a house near North Carolina University and now he had also offered to buy him a house in Los Angeles or the coach's family could live in one of the servants' houses that Jake had in his mansion.
Even though it was called a house for employees it was much bigger than an ordinary house and had 3 bedrooms and was very good for Coach Davis' family to live in, after all, Jake could move and buy another house in another city when he changed teams and the Davis coach could not buy a home in several different cities.
But Coach Davis said it wouldn't be a problem because he had talked to his wife and he would buy a house in Los Angeles and then live in hotels elsewhere where Jake played in the NBA, the important thing was that his family had a home to stay in.
So Jake suggested that he buy a house in Miami because Jake himself would return to live in Miami in the future, but Coach Davis denied it because he knew that Jake would at least stay another 4 years in Los Angeles and after that, his daughter Lara who already had 10 years would be 14 years old and they would have no problem living in hotels.
Not to mention that with the salary Jake paid he could save to buy another house in another 4 years if he wanted to, Jake felt bad for Frank's family, but as Coach Davis had decided that there was nothing Jake could do about it.
Coach Davis had also already talked to the organizers of the marathon in Chicago and the registration of Jake and Zack was decided, after all, Jake had won in the last 3 years and even people in the sports media knew that Jake would be there.
Zack was studying at the university, but he always talked to Jake just like his other friends and so Zack said he was still training even after Coach Davis who helped him out.
Coach Davis said that Zack had a good chance of finishing the Chicago marathon in less than 3 hours and could even surprise and get a great time in that marathon, Jake was very happy to know that because he knew the effort that Zack continued to have in training.
"Coach Davis, as you well know we were lucky to get those next few months to train before the Chicago marathon and maybe we have a few more months before the NBA season starts."
"So I wanted to do that training to improve my time in the marathons because I know that I have improved a lot and I can improve my time in the races even more, and this may be the last chance to improve my training before the 2000 Olympics because I don't know if I have time to train for the next vacation."
Coach Davis knew that Jake was upset that he had not improved training when he asked last year, but Coach Davis could not have imagined that besides basketball and marathons Jake would still try to be an actor thereby wasting training time on vacation that he could have.
But since Jake decided to train, he knew he would have to agree with Jake's increase in training, and after spending so much time with Jake, Coach Davis learned to accept that Jake's body was different from other athletes.
Even though Coach Davis knew that Jake had a lot of resistance and so he was able to run 50 km every day in an average time to break the world record, he was afraid that Jake would try too hard and end up with an injury that would end his career in athletics and also in basketball.
But now he trusted that Jake had a much stronger body than all the athletes in the world he knew, so he would help Jake improve his training in the coming months and so he could follow Jake's training to make sure he didn't. could get hurt.
The biggest reason that Coach Davis wanted to deny that Jake tried was that he was trying to do what was considered impossible in marathons, running in less than 2 hours a 42.2 km marathon, was impossible because it required a lot of effort from the athlete to run up the limits for so long to break that record.
Jake thought he was capable because his stats have improved a lot since he managed to run for the first time in his current time, in addition, Jake had trained for many months to get better.
Jake's resistance statistic was now 45, his strength statistic is 43, and his agility statistic is 42, because of the conversation Jake had with the system he might not have the greatest stat in agility and strength, but already had achieved in resistance.
Certainly Jake had a much bigger statistic than big names in athletics, Jake thought he was able to run a marathon under 2 hours because he had the system and also because he trained a lot, Jake was sure that one-day champion athletes would also succeed run under 2 hours even without the help of the system.
In Jake's training, he was already running much faster than his current world record, so he runs 42.2 km in 122 minutes and 21 seconds, it was a great time and Jake was still over 50 km running at that speed average and thus ran 50 km in 145 minutes.
For an elite athlete to run a 42.2 km marathon in 145 minutes it would be excellent and Jake did that every day running 50 km, so Jake was sure he would be able to improve his training.
Even if he couldn't run in less than 120 minutes to break the limit, he could close that gap and hope to get more statistic points until he can run at that time.
After talking to Coach Davis, Jake started on the first day to try to run the 50 km in the time he normally ran, Coach Davis wanted to see if Jake had not really lost his ideal physical condition even though he had not been training for more than 6 months.
Jake would naturally not forget the techniques he had learned and running for him after training for over 2 years was very easy after 50 km Jake managed to run at the same time he was used to 6 months earlier and Coach Davis thought until Jake managed to run more easily.
So Coach Davis had no choice but to admit that Jake's body worked differently than other athletes, he approved that the next day Jake would try to improve his running time, to run a marathon in less than 2 hours Jake had to run 4 seconds faster per km and so he would take more than 160 seconds of the final time he could now.
But even Jake didn't want to try the madness of trying to run with 4 seconds less time than before for km, he would try to decrease 2 seconds per km to see what he could do, so the other day very early after Eva left to go to Jake's restaurant went to the race track at his house and Coach Davis arrived shortly after.
"Jake, I didn't approve of this because you can't understand what you're trying to do, we can say you're almost at the general limit of marathons if you decrease 1 second per km you have to decrease more than 42 seconds in a total time of racing."
"So, as you are in the elite of runners, you can manage to do that, what you have to understand is that 1 second less per km makes a lot of difference at the end of the marathon, which didn't make much difference before."
"What you are trying to do is run 4 seconds less per km and so you want to decrease your total running time by more than 168 seconds, this is very dangerous for you."
"As we still have three months I will let you run 1 second less in 43 km in today's training, you will not run 50 km as you normally do, and if you can easily do it tomorrow we will try to take another 1 second per km."
Jake had to agree with Coach Davis because he knew Frank was doing it for his sake, besides, even slowing it down by just 1 second per km Jake knew it would help him run even faster.
So after getting ready and having managed to run the 50 km in the best time he had before he was more confident of achieving that, Jake had to use the system to control his running pace and his time.
So it was not difficult for him to take exactly 1 second of each km of running, thinking normally taking just 1 second of each km should be a very easy thing, but only an athlete who ran knew how difficult it was.
Jake controlled his pace well in the race and he managed to get through the 20 km with ease, Coach Davis hoped that Jake would be able to run the first 20 km easily because of his good resistance, after the 40 km that Jake would feel the difference more in the race.
Jake continued calmly and passed the 30 km and then also passed the 40 km, Jake had high control over what happened to his body and he can see that after 40 km he felt much more tired than the day before.
He could feel that the tiredness was bigger, but he still wasn't tired because normally he still had another 50 km to run, Jake continued and ran the last 3 km still not feeling tired and can finish the 43 km that he had combined with Coach Davis.
Even running 1 second per km faster than the day before Jake was much less tired because he had run 7 km less than the day before, seeing that Coach Davis could not deny that he was really surprised because he thought Jake would have a lot more difficult on his first day.
Jake managed to finish the 43 km in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds, that time excited him and Coach Davis too, because Jake had run almost 1 km more than the 42.2 km that the marathon usually had and got a better time than his current world record.
So Coach Davis allowed Jake to run a second faster the next day, so Jake was excited that he would get half of what he wanted, and Jake was confident that he could slow down 1 second more on the next race day.
Jake made dinner every day that they were at home and Eva came home to have dinner with him, Eva realized that Jake was excited and realized that Jake should be training again and had managed to improve and so he was happy.
Eva was happy to see how hard Jake was at training himself even though he had reached the height of the marathons and had the money to live his whole life, many would surely give up on the marathons and try to just play basketball in the NBA and still be praised if they had the talent that Jake had.
The other day Jake went running the 43 km again after doing the warm-up and trainer Davis arrived Jake went running thinking about taking another second for km from the time he had managed the day before.
Jake had to improve his time because he no longer knew when he would have time to do such long training, so he could be his last training in many years, in this next Chicago marathon Jake intended to break his world record again.
That's because honestly, he didn't know when he could run another marathon again, he intended to run the Chicago marathon every year if it was possible, but that could irritate the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers team.
His current world record was 2 hours, 5 minutes and 55 seconds that he achieved in 1997 at the Berlin marathon, and that record would be broken next year if Jake did not improve him.
So Jake wanted to run to create a world record that would not be broken for many years, so Jake could lose a few years without running in the marathons until he broke his world record again.
Thinking about it Jake was even more willing to run and did 1 second less per km than the day before, Jake ran 1 km in 2 minutes and 52 seconds this time and that time was really fast.
Again, Jake had no difficulty running until the first 20 km, but after that, he started to feel that he was trying harder and getting more tired, Jake knew he had the resistance to run in that faster time.
But what he felt was that he was straining his muscles in that race and that was something he hadn't felt since the marathon he got injured in New York, of course, he didn't feel he was pushing his limits and all athletes should feel this normally after 20 km running a marathon.
After reaching 30 km Jake started to feel like he normally felt only after running 43 km in his previous training time, Jake hoped for this and even though the day before it was easier to run Jake knew he would suffer to be able to run 50 km as he usually did in training.
Even so, it was a running pace that Jake would normally manage and so he kept running and passed 40 km, after going through 40 km of marathon Jake felt more tired than he felt running the 50 km normally, which is why since the beginning he wanted to start training by being 2 seconds faster.
Even so Jake managed to run another 3 km and thus complete the 43 km he had to run, Jake certainly felt very tired as he normally did not feel after training, of course, Jake thought he could still run a few more kilometers and still you wouldn't need to use the stamina bar.
Jake ran this 43 km in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 16 seconds, Jake didn't know that, but with him running like that he managed to shock Coach Davis again, that time running in 43 km was already well below Jake's world record and it seemed like Jake could still take his time better.
Coach Davis was impressed that he had already coached other athletes with less talent than Jake, so he knew that normally after a few months of training it was normal to see the younger and slower athletes having minute improvements in their time in racing. long distance.
This was normal for talented athletes who had no training time until it reached the time that an elite athlete can achieve, that time for athletes who dream of winning marathons are running in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes in a marathon.
Until that time, the athletes' improvement is very fast and it is normal to see athletes like Zack improve his time by more than 1 hour after a year of training if they are compromised.
But in Coach Davis's experience after 2 hours and 20 minutes, the athlete's improvement slows a lot, even the geniuses take months to improve a minute in their time and it wasn't something stable and in some marathons, they could have better times or worse.
But Jake managed to improve his time which was already faster than the time of the world record that was his own in almost 2 minutes in just 2 days, things that would take months of training for athletes who were training with a time of 2 hours and 20 minutes.
And it was even more shocking because Coach Davis knew as Jake's coach that he hadn't coached his races for more than 6 months before that, so after that, Coach Davis learned that Jake's body really worked differently than other athletes.
Seeing that Jake was not feeling exhausted or in pain even though he ran 43 km, Coach Davis thought that if he wanted to help Jake achieve better results he had to find out what was Jake's limit.
"You did very well today, Jake, with this race time you can certainly guarantee the world record for many years, but as you said we don't know when we will have time to do training like this again."
"So I was thinking that before this Chicago marathon as we are just going to train you to run the marathons, we could see what your limits are, so tomorrow you will run 1 second less per km, I believe you can do it with this pace faster."
Jake was thinking that this running pace was good for his new training, if he could run 50 km a day at that running pace he would definitely feel like he was training for real.
But listening to Coach Davis saying that Jake thought it was true, he didn't know when he could train like that again and it was a good way for him to find out what his limit was after winning so many physical stats.
After the marathon, they would train the 10,000 meters and the 5,000 meters also already thinking about winning the Olympics, so Jake would not have time to further improve his pace of running the marathons.
If Jake could even manage to run in less than 2 hours he would be very happy and feel that he had realized a dream, after all that was one of the main goals for Jake in the future.
And Jake knew that he was really close to achieving this if he slowed down just 2 seconds per km in his running time he would be able to achieve that dream even if it was not official.
Shortly after Jake decided this and arranged with trainer Davis Jake came home to rest and got a surprise, Adidas representative Mike Morris had come to visit him in Miami.
Jake had told Mike to send some of their products like clothes, sneakers so that Jake could actually advertise the company as he was very well paid to do, Coach Davis had also warned Mike that Jake was going to run the Chicago marathon.
But he never expected Mike to appear in Miami at his house, especially since there were no NBA games going on and Jake was training for the Chicago marathon while on his vacation.
In fact, while Jake was in Australia, a lot of things happened in the United States and in the sports world, mainly because it was confirmed that Jake Smith would play on the Los Angeles Lakers team with Kobe Bryant who was another young NBA genius at that time and Shaquille O'Neal.
But after Jake went to Australia it was revealed that Jake had signed one of the biggest shoe contracts with Adidas, many thought Jake would sign with Nike and that was surprising to many, especially since Adidas had already managed to hire Kobe Bryant with another multi-million dollar contract.
Luckily the values of the contract were not revealed because of the efficiency of the representatives of Adidas and David Falk, for sure in a few more months the values of the negotiation would be revealed.
But that was what they wanted because when everyone forgot about this story in a few months when the values are revealed to Adidas it would be news again, Jake's other contracts were also surprising making him one of the highest-paid players in the NBA since his first season.
But not all of this was good for Adidas and other companies, normally Jake would have already done a commercial campaign or a television commercial for Adidas and these other companies, but as NBA lockout the companies thought wisely that it would not be a good idea to do something like that.
But Jake knew through David Falk and that it was confirmed by Mike that Adidas was preparing a great marketing strategy and a product line with his brand for the next few years, Jake even had the idea for sneakers and decided to use his brand. to avoid having copyright issues in the future with Adidas.
Jake learned that Adidas was already making a shoe that would be his trademark with Adidas, there would be two shoes, one for basketball and one for running, the running shoe would be called Adidas JKS Velocity, and the basketball shoe would only be Adidas JKS 1.
The sneakers would be black with blue and purple details, the two sneakers were almost the same and very beautiful, but one was for elite runners in marathons and the other was for playing basketball or just walking with them on the street.
Jake had the number 7 of the shirt that was his favorite and would be his brand in the NBA, so Adidas would make a jacket with Jake's brand called Adidas JKS 7, Jake wore the number 7 by his own choice in the Tar Heels team and would use the same number on the Los Angeles Lakers team.
After all, the shirt 7 he wore on the Tar Heels team had been retired and he wanted to continue wearing it on the next teams he played, Jake was happy with his two sneakers and hoped they would sell well.
"Sorry for coming to see you, Jake, but I needed to talk to you and I took advantage of the fact that I had to deliver some Adidas products and brought them to you."
"It's okay, Mike, I appreciate you bringing the products to me."
Jake asked Mike to enter his house and also helped to carry the boxes he had brought, inside one of the boxes he had the sneakers he had ordered, in the 90s among the best-selling sneakers most were from Nike and few were from Adidas.
Of course, Adidas wouldn't give Jake a Kobe Bryant sneaker if he didn't ask, so Jake received some of Adidas's most popular sneakers and also had it for his mom, Mike said that when Jake was in Los Angeles they would send a lot more sneakers to him.
Jake received jackets, blouses, T-shirts, pants and many other products just as he had requested, he did not mind his training and also the next marathon to go with some of the Adidas products.
He would also go to the city with some of these clothes and if he was photographed he would advertise as he should, Mike said which shoes he should wear in the Chicago marathon and Jake accepted the shoes and found it comfortable.
"So, as I said to you before I came here to say something important, your coach told me that you are going to race in Chicago, so I wanted to ask if you could also run the Athens Classic Marathon."
"Surely you must know and know that it is one of the most difficult marathons and has an important historical value, so the company wanted you to run there if it was possible after running in Chicago because we want to promote the company and you also in Europe where you have the most fans."
Jake didn't know that most of his fans were from Europe and he only went there a few times, but if that were true he really thought he could be sure he would have to go there to participate in a marathon, especially since the Adidas was a European company.
Jake had his current world record made in the Berlin marathon that was in Germany where Adidas was headquartered, and he didn't really think about participating in more marathons in Europe, but with an invitation from the Adidas company he would accept."
"It's okay for me, I can recover before the Athens marathon and go running there, I didn't know I had a lot of fans in Europe."
"Okay, thanks for that Jake, you seem to have a lot of fans in Europe and Asia too, you played basketball in some cities in Europe when you were younger and also won some important marathons there, so it was natural for you to receive more attention of the audience there."
"Furthermore, it seems that it was known that your mother was of Spanish descent and that is why you received more attention from there, you certainly have a lot of fans in the United States too, but as the United States has many stars in basketball and athletics for while your fame is not as great as theirs."
"And the fans you have in Asia are because you won an important marathon in Tokyo and Asians are very fond of basketball too and have a greater identification with you too."
After hearing Mike's explanation he can understand, surely Adidas had done research with fans to find out where Jake was popular before they decided to sign with him, it was true that his mother was of Spanish descent and so Jake didn't care to say that he had European descent as well.
And Jake also knew that in the future because the economy in China has become so strong, basketball fans there have started buying a lot of NBA products and many players have become popular in China because of that.
After that Mike talked to Jake for a while before he left, Mike was not like John and could not be in all of his marathons and would only be in Athens because Adidas asked Jake to run there.
But Jake knew that some Gatorade representatives would naturally be at the Chicago marathon, they were an athlete drink company and supported the marathons and sponsored Jake mainly.
The other companies would also send representatives, but they would not advertise there because they did not sponsor the marathon and therefore could not hinder the sponsors of the marathon.
Gatorade sponsored many of the big marathons and it wouldn't be a problem for them to advertise, for them to sponsor an athlete like Jake would be much better than just sponsoring the marathons.
Adidas and other companies also planned to start sponsoring marathons in the coming years and all of this was related to Jake, for sure these companies intended to renew sponsorship contracts with Jake if he had no problems with scandals and played well in the NBA as everyone expected.
When Jake thought that the surprises were over a good surprise that happened to him, the Chevrolet company had sponsored Jake too and naturally had to get something from Jake, but with this NBA situation, they couldn't just like other companies do a new commercial with him.
So they had the great idea to send Jake two Chevrolet corvette zr1 1990, which was one of the good cars that Jake thought to buy, so Jake asked to deliver one of them in Miami and another one in his house in Los Angeles.
This car that would be sent to Miami Jake would give it to his mother and only use when he was in town and so he would advertise, Jake was happy to receive this car because he knew it would be strange to ride the McLaren F1 to some public places in Los Angeles.
Also, even though the McLaren F1 was an amazing car it still wasn't a good car when you had to ride with other people in the car, so the corvette zr1 would be good for him to use and if someone asked why he was driving the car he could say it was because of the sponsorship.
Jake was happy that a lot of good things were happening to him this year and especially in the last few months, he hoped he could win in Chicago and Athens because afterward he probably wouldn't have time for marathons until the next Olympics.
Later that day Jake told his mother that he had received some Adidas products and that he would receive two Chevrolet cars and Eva was very happy for Jake, Jake had also asked Mike for some products for women and handed over one of the boxes for his mother.
The other day Jake waited for Coach Davis to continue training on the track that was in his house, for someone who had a lot of money as Jake had certainly helped to have an athletics track, a court and a gym in his house so that he could train better with more comfort.
That's why he had the same thing done at his house in Los Angeles, other athletes didn't have the opportunity to do that and Jake had to take advantage of this advantage that he had, so he hoped to become the best in marathon history.
After Jake finished the warm-up exercises, Coach Davis arrived and Jake started his race from that day, Jake knew it would be more difficult and was determined to get even if he suffered more.
Jake was wearing the Adidas sneakers and clothing that he would wear on the day of the Chicago marathon to get used to the outfit, Jake used the company's sneakers before if they were good but not as good as the elite sneakers for athletes.
Even so for Jake, it was not a big difference and it only brought more comfort to his body while he ran, just like in the previous days Jake had no difficulty after passing 20 km.
Naturally, he felt that he was pushing the muscles in his legs a lot more and the fatigue was a little greater, but the 20 km was not even half the marathon and Jake could not get tired at this distance if he wanted to have a chance to finish the marathon in the right time.
Coach Davis, unlike other days, was also closely monitoring Jake's performance for this training, if he felt Jake was at risk of getting hurt he would ask Jake to stop.
After driving 30 km Jake really started to feel tired and more pain in his legs, it was the pain of the effort that his body was making to keep up with the pace that Jake wanted to run, but Jake still felt he could finish the marathon.
After passing 40 km Jake clearly realized the strong fatigue he was feeling and the pain in his legs was stronger, Jake was not used to trying so hard and reaching that limit, but as he was determined he kept running.
Coach Davis can also clearly see that this running pace was the maximum limit that Jake could reach today, it was admirable how Jake improved in just three days if training and knowing Jake as he knew after a few weeks Jake would be able to run up to 50 km all the days at that running pace.
Jake continued running without fear because he knew that his body was much stronger than before and he had confidence in the statistics that he had achieved with a lot of effort, besides, he knew that if his body really couldn't take it he would be warned by the system before getting hurt.
Fortunately, Jake managed to run another 3 km and finished his training of 43 km and fell on the track exhausted, Jake had managed to run at a pace of 2 minutes and 51 seconds per km and finished that 43 km in 2 hours, 2 minutes and 33 seconds.
This was an incredible time that was just a little bit longer than his previous time running 42.2 km, and Jake did that time in 43 km, which meant Jake did the 42.2 km in this training in 120 minutes and 16 seconds.
So Jake did it in 2 hours, and 16 seconds, that was just 17 seconds slower than the time he wanted to break, it cheered Jake and Coach Davis even more who thought this effort and training had been worth it.
This was a running pace that Jake wanted to train until the Sydney Olympics in 2000, if Jake managed to run 50 km in daily training running at that pace he would feel that the training was really paying off.
After training Jake felt his leg muscles aching, he felt very tired too, but he didn't eat the stamina bar because he knew he had the rest of the day to rest and with the natural recovery his body had the other day he would be fine to run again.
Jake also thought that if he felt this pain he could maybe improve his endurance and muscle strength and maybe even increase his stats if he trained hard, neither Jake nor trainer Davis talked about trying to improve this race time and they decided that this would be Jake's training until the Chicago marathon.
After that marathon, he would still have the Athens marathon, but Jake had to train before the Chicago marathon because he intended to try to break his world record again, but after the Chicago marathon, he would train to run the 10,000 meters and 5 thousand meters.
It was only 2 years until the Sydney Olympics and Jake had to be ready to run there, he needed at least two years of training to have more confidence, luckily he had already trained the 10,000 meters and would try to improve his time for a break at least the Olympic record and thus try to win at the Olympics.
With the NBA and basketball games, Jake didn't think about participating in international athletics competitions anymore if he didn't have time for that, so the Olympics were the focus of Jake's training.
If he managed to break the Olympic record in all his training he was more likely to win in both modalities in the next Olympics and thus break another record and maybe come out of the next Olympics with 4 gold medals in total as long as the gold medal that he won in Atlanta.
Coach Davis said nothing to Jake not to make him vain, but he was sure after those last few days of training that Jake would be able to run in time to break the Olympic record in the 10,000 meters.
After all Jake was currently able to run 43 km at a pace of 2 minutes and 51 seconds per km, for the 10,000 meters Jake needed to run only 10 km and he had to run at a pace of 2 minutes and 36 seconds per km to break the record worldwide in this modality.
And he could run at a pace of 2 minutes and 42 seconds per km to break the Olympic record that was his goal, Coach Davis thought that for just 10 km Jake could calmly run at a pace of 2 minutes and 42 seconds without getting tired.
Of course, at this rate, Jake could only train once a day for 10,000 meters and not train 3 times a day as they did that year, but knowing how Jake's body was different from an ordinary athlete, Coach Davis thought Jake could train only once a day and still be prepared for the Olympics.
It was different for the 5,000 meters, but Coach Davis had already trained athletes of various modalities and knew that Jake had the necessary agility that was more important to run the 5,000 meters and was not so important for the other long-distance races.
Even if Jake didn't manage to run the 10,000 meters sport, only the two sports he would run would already guarantee a special place for Jake in the history of athletics, he certainly would already be known as the best athlete in the marathons in the history of athletics.
So Jake had already set his training pace for the next training until the Chicago marathon, Jake knew that his university roommates would go to Chicago to cheer for him and Zack too, so Jake was excited about it.
Jake came home in pain, but happy to get what he wanted and feeling again that his training was being useful to him, Jake rested for a few hours to prepare to make dinner for Eva.
While he was getting ready he received a call that was expected by him a few days ago, it was Kate who was calling him as she often did when Jake was in Australia, they were getting very close and talking a lot on the phone while Kate and Jake were busy working.
Kate had agreed with Jake that she would call him because she would choose a time when she wasn't working and didn't have her manager around, which usually worked because Jake could almost always answer his cell phone and if he couldn't he would text her she.
"Hi Jake, how are you?"
"Hi Kate, I'm fine, happier because you called me today."
"Hahaha, you always say that you said you were going to leave filming in Australia the last time I called you, are you in Los Angeles now?"
"No, I'm in Miami at my home right now, I took advantage of the fact that I wouldn't have games in the coming months to be with my mom and also to train for the next marathons."
"You never really rest, do you, I also had a break after doing so many shows and recording my musical album this year, I think in the next few months I will rest before I go back to doing shows."
Jake always heard Kate say what her work routine was like and he was impressed with so much work that the singers had to do, sometimes Kate said she had to do 7 shows in a week in different cities and still had to participate in shows. radio and commercials.
Luckily it looked like it was having a good result because she had achieved her first song by being in the first place on the Billboard, she already had some songs in the top 100 a few times, but it was the first song that stayed a week in the first place.
This was incredible because she had changed her style of music a lot and her fans also just increased, especially since she was considered a new singer who had a chance of winning the 41st Annual Grammy Awards as Best New Artist.
After all, currently, only she had a song on Billboard's top spot that year among new artists, but Jake knew it wouldn't be so easy because Lauryn Hill who would win the prize would also have a song on Billboard's top spot.
"Since you are thinking of resting in the coming months, come here to Miami, it is a great place to rest and that way we could meet for lunch more often, I miss you."
Jake took courage and said what he was thinking and it surprised Kate that she didn't say anything on the phone for some time, Jake knew that he actually loved Kate and was thinking about asking Kate to date him this year.
But it was difficult for them to have time to meet and next year it would be even more difficult with Jake playing in the NBA, so he had to be more honest with his feelings talking to Kate so that they would have a chance.
"I really wanted to go to Miami on my vacation, I love the beach and I like Miami a lot, I think I'm going to be there in the next few days and we can go out to lunch."
"For sure, you can call me as soon as you get here that I will meet you, I will wait for you."
With this good news Jake was even happier, with Kate coming to Miami he could finally ask her to date him, he would prepare this for lunch, Jake was happy that this year was really one of the best in his life.
At dinner Eva realized that Jake was much happier than usual, she realized that Jake was more tired and excited because of his training, but today she could feel that it was something different and not just because of training.
"You look very happy today, Jake, did anything special happen?"
"Yes, good things happened today, I was able to improve my training for marathons even more and I came close to my goal that I always had when I started running."
"So it could happen that I break my world record again in the Chicago marathon and win another gold medal at the next Olympics, even though I am very tired I am very happy."
Eva saw that Jake was speaking the truth and was also very happy to know that, few times she saw Jake confidently asserting that he could win a marathon or win a gold medal at the Olympics.
But this time Jake did even more and guaranteed that he could break his world record which naturally meant that he could win the marathon, yet Eva still thought it wasn't just that and that Jake was hiding something.
"This is really great son, congratulations, but it seems that there is something else that is also making you happier today."
"I really can't hide anything from you mom, I talked to Kate today on the phone and she told me that she was thinking of taking a vacation in the next few months, so I suggested that she come and spend the holidays here in Miami."
"And she said she would come and so I am going to invite her to lunch and we can meet several times in the coming months."
With Jake saying that Eva can understand why he was so happy, she knew that Jake was really in love with Kate by the way he talked about her and how he always talked about her even when they saw each other so rarely.
She was naturally happy for Jake and would support her son to live that love for him, but she couldn't help but worry about Lola after hearing this, Lola had been trying to forget Jake for almost 3 years and had seen him a few times.
In the restaurant, it was difficult to do that, but Eva and Anna and almost nobody in the restaurant spoke about Jake's name out of consideration for Lola, of course, in the kitchen Eva and Anna talked a lot with the cooks about Jake and even watched his games at the university.
But that was because Lola was the receptionist at the restaurant and didn't often enter the kitchen and she naturally had to get used to Jake's games being broadcast in the restaurant that he was practically the owner.
Eva and Anna thought that Lola had already forgotten about Jake and even her father Júlio said that her daughter had already overcome this relationship that never really happened, but Eva still worried about Lola and until she knew that Lola was dating her she didn't he would know even if she had forgotten about Jake.
That's because Eva knew that when Jake started dating Kate for sure after a few weeks all the magazines and various television shows would talk about it because even though Jake and Kate were not the most famous and well-known in the country when they started dating, they would be one of the best known young couples.
Even more with Jake participating in a big movie and joining the NBA and Lola gaining more and more fans in the music world and having a song in the first place on Billboard, even so, Eva wouldn't say that to Jake because she knew Jake was not to blame in this situation and has already had too much consideration for Lola not going to the restaurant almost once for almost 3 years.
"Mom, as I said to you when Kate comes to Miami I intend to ask her to date me if she accepts I want to bring her here to have dinner together so I can introduce her to you."
"Sure, son, if you start dating I will fully support your relationship and you can bring her here and I will love meeting your girlfriend."
Having talked about it with his mother, Jake was even happier that everything in his life was going well, even though he was tired Jake was still very agitated and decided to go to the court after dinner to do some three-point training to relax.
Even though Jake hadn't been doing any basketball training for the past few months and was just using his gym after returning to Miami, he still did imagination training every day as usual.
Jake could do this training twice a day and did it every day even when he was tired and when he was filming in Australia, and now Jake was even more excited about doing his imagination training.
That's because after the NBA draft when he became a professional player and he leveled up in his first job in the system, Jake could play against better players than he did in imagination training.
And Jake had to say that finally, this training was very useful for him, it seemed that the problem of lack of intelligence of his opponents in the training of imagination had almost disappeared, his opponents thought about the plays and so the training was never the same.
Also, when Jake put his opponents in the SS rank like he always did, he really regretted doing it, the players in his imagination training were much better than his teammates Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison.
They were better than many of the toughest opponents he had at university like Mike Bibby, Jake had to believe that they really were better than most of the NBA players he would play for years to come.
Of course, players like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and Michael Jordan had many things that were better than these opponents that Jake had in his imagination training, but not even these geniuses had SS rank in all abilities.
So Jake could see how a skill rank made a big difference when he reached the NBA level, it wasn't like that at other levels, but he realized that difference and how he put the height of all his opponents being taller than him, Jake had a hard time even hitting three-point shots.
After all, with opponents having SS rank in the block they seemed to know what was the right time to hinder blocking when Jake tried the three-point shot, that was good because Jake trained more for when he joined the NBA and also I learned how he would have to try three-point shots in the NBA playing against opponents who could get the block.
Fortunately, his skill rank in the three-point shot was also SS rank and he was more agile than his opponents in training and thus still managed to hit more than 50 percent of his three-point shots.
His steal and passing skills still worked well in his imagination training, but Jake didn't even want to try to layup and dunk with so many higher opponents and SS block rank, it was almost suicide to do that.
Fortunately, his teammates were also SS rank in skills and Jake was still smarter than his opponents and so they managed to almost win some games, the problem was that all opponents also had SS rank in three-point shots.
Jake thought it would certainly be a big nightmare if it were really like that in reality, playing with opponents who were better than him in almost every skill and knew how to use their skills better.
But it did a little to take away all the arrogance that Jake had being the first pick in the NBA draft and winning several individual awards at College basketball, Jake had to learn that even if he had good skills he would still start as an NBA rookie.
It was certainly difficult for other talented players to learn this lesson in humility as Jake learned before he even joined the NBA, but it would probably make teammates find him more enjoyable if he was humble in the beginning.
Of course, Jake still had the same dreams and still thought he wanted to win several NBA titles and be the MVP in several seasons, but he didn't need to think about getting it in his first NBA seasons.
So for him to spend more than an hour doing three-point shots on his court it was much more relaxing than the training he normally did, Jake was also developing another special move for when he had to play in the NBA.
It was a special three-point shooting movement that was different from the way he normally did, but if Jake managed after a lot of training to have the same hit percentage as he had to do the three-point shot it was usually very good.
This was a move he thought after doing this imagination training with opponents who were very good at blocks, and with this move, it was impossible for an opponent to block without missing Jake.
But Jake thought that this move could only be done better if he had more stats points in strength, even so, he could use it in games against opponents who were very good at blocks and were defending against him.
After relaxing with the three-point shots, Jake can go home and sleep peacefully, the other day Jake went too early to do his normal training that he had to continue, especially now that he felt he was really getting better with this training.
Jake had already recovered completely from the tiring run he had done on the last day just as he thought and after doing the warm-up exercises Coach Davis arrived, Coach Davis was also excited after Jake's training on the last day.
He couldn't help thinking that he was Jake's trainer who could win several gold medals in the marathons and in the 10,000 meters in the next Olympics and Jake could still run under the 2 hour time and break the world record that would be harder to break in history.
Even so, he still asked if Jake was fine and if he could try to run the same way as yesterday, after all, Jake could not try too hard and end up getting injured, otherwise it would be better to train more lightly and not take the risk.
Jake said it was okay and after doing the warm-up exercises he started running again, Jake would try to run at the same pace as on the last day and would do it until he didn't feel exhausted and the other days he would try to increase the total training distance.
If Jake managed to run the 50 km at this pace every day, he could guarantee that he could run at that pace in an official marathon and only then would he explore his limits and be able to improve even more in the coming months or years.
Jake was not in such a hurry anymore and didn't mind not improving his running pace until after the Sydney Olympics in 2000, after all, even though Jake had a dream of running in less than 2 hours in an official marathon, he didn't have to work too hard to train to achieve this in the coming months.
After managing to win in the 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters and once again winning a gold medal in the marathons, Jake would try once again to improve his race pace.
Without the stress of the challenge and having more confidence, Jake managed to run the 43 km at the same pace as the previous day and was much less tired, but he still wouldn't risk running for more km than that.
Jake analyzed his physical condition and saw that he could run a maximum of 45 km at this pace and he would be exhausted if he did, and Jake thought that in the coming months he probably could not run more than 45 km.
After all, Jake had 45 points in the resistance statistics and was running very close to the pace to be able to run a marathon in less than 2 hours, so Jake didn't think it would be easy to increase his resistance to be able to run more kilometers.
But he was already satisfied with that so that he could break his current world record smoothly and still continue training to improve even more in the years to come, Jake continued to train with great effort in the next few days and one day Jake received a new call from Kate that he was waiting.
"Hi, Jake, I arrived in Miami a few hours ago, I will be staying at a hotel in the next few months and if you want to tomorrow we can go out to lunch as you had invited me."
"For sure, I was looking forward to your arrival and if you want I can stop by your hotel to take you to the restaurant."
"Okay, tomorrow you will call me when you arrive."
Jake was very happy to know that Kate had arrived and even more so because they were going to meet for lunch the other day, Kate actually had a house in Miami, but she would probably stay at the hotel because of her manager who should have come with her and to hide from paparazzi in magazines.
So Jake was excited again, and the next day after his training he soon ate a stamina bar so he wouldn't get tired all day and dressed up for lunch and took the red corvette zr1 car that arrived in Miami.
For Los Angeles, he had ordered a blue zr1 corvette, but he asked for a red one to stay in Miami because he knew his mother liked red cars, but it was a beautiful car and it was also discreet and would not attract the attention of others.
Jake arrived at the hotel where Kate was and called her to say that she had arrived, Kate had also dressed up for lunch and was wearing high heels and a beautiful blue dress, she was surprised by Jake's car, but she thought it was beautiful.
Even though Jake was afraid of cars in the past with the agility he had now with the help of the system, he became an excellent driver, especially since he did not like to race too much with the car for more safety.
Jake and Kate talked about what had happened in the last few months while Jake drove to the restaurant, he was very interested in her stories because it was all different from what happened in the past that he knew.
Of course, Jake didn't really follow the music world at the time and just knew about the songs that were on Billboard and who would win the Grammy, but he knew that everything Kate did was different than what he knew because she hadn't been one. singer in Jake's past.
When they arrived at the restaurant that Jake had already made a reservation with, they kept talking, Jake had VIP status at several Miami restaurants because he always had a lot of business lunches, so it was easier for him to get a table available to book.
Jake told what had happened on the shoot from Australia and told about the martial arts training he had to do and also about the other actors and the friends he made, of course, Jake was careful not to tell Kate about how it would be the film not to spoil her.
After all, Jake intended to take Kate to watch The Matrix with him at the cinema, so she could watch the scenes he had participated in, Jake also talked about the NBA draft that Kate had watched and what happened there that was not broadcast by the TV.
"I've been listening to your songs, Kate, I think they're all great, do you think you can win the Best New Artist award?"
"I don't know, from what my manager said it is almost certain that I will at least be nominated, but it is difficult to know if I can win because there are many talented singers competing like Andrea Bocelli, Dixie Chicks, Backstreet Boys and Lauryn Hill."
Jake agreed that it would be difficult to imagine Kate winning if he were to think about what these great artists she mentioned did in the future of the music he knew, but Jake really liked Kate's music and thought she would also be one of the biggest names in music in the future.
Kate also told Jake that her birthday had just passed and she was now 20 years old, her birthday was in September and Jake didn't know that before because she hadn't told him that.
They talked about various things and stayed for a few hours in the restaurant before Jake realized how much time had passed and took Kate to her hotel, even though they had known each other for more than 3 years they had talked in person a few times in those years.
So Jake decided that he would treat Kate with the respect she deserved and would still meet her a few times in the next few months before asking her to date him, so they really would know each other well before Jake asked her to date him.
Jake took Kate back to the hotel and saw that she too was happy with their lunch so Jake can be more relieved, Jake returned home and on the way, he went to a flower shop and chose flowers for them to send to Kate at the hotel.
So Jake's next days were a lot of training with trainer Davis, in which Jake increased his daily training to 45 km which was the maximum he could handle today, even so, he was very happy with the satisfactory training he was having.
On those days Jake also invited Kate to go out with him almost every day and as long as he felt that she enjoyed meeting with him, Jake would continue to ask almost every day, and it seemed that Kate enjoyed these meetings as much as he did.
Jake took Kate to several restaurants that had different menus and always for lunch, Jake also always sent flowers, chocolates, and stuffed animals as gifts to Kate's hotel, and it seemed that she liked that too.
After a few weeks, Jake started taking Kate to other types of dates like going to the movies, to the theater, to the park to have a picnic, to the beach and to various places that Jake knew and wanted to share with Kate.
After several weeks of dating, Jake thought he liked Kate even more and also knew her a lot more than before and so Jake thought he made the right decision to go out on several dates with her before asking her to date with him.
Jake's strategy was that even though he asked Kate to meet him several times, he never asked her to go to dinner with him, and he thought of asking her to go to dinner with him only when he intended to ask her to date him.
But before that the day of the Chicago marathon was approaching, Jake trained every day and no longer suffered from running at this intense pace the 45 km, of course, it would not be at this pace that Jake would run the Chicago marathon and therefore missing a week to the Jake marathon returned to his old training pace by running 50 km.
Running at his old pace Jake found it much easier and had almost no fatigue for himself running 50 km, but of course Jake knew it was necessary, Jake warned his mother and Kate that he was going to Chicago to run the marathon there and the two understood.
This time as he had time Jake went to Chicago two days before the marathon at a hotel he had booked for himself because it was the same hotel he went to compete in the marathon every year and Jake had become a VIP customer at that hotel.
Jake also made reservations at this hotel for Coach Davis who went with him from Miami and also for Zack and his former roommates who would come from the university to see Jake and Zack running in the marathon.
Jake missed his friends William and Aaron and of course Zack too, Jake invited Zack's family too, but everyone was busy and said they would go when Zack ran in a marathon closer to where they lived.
Zack could already run any marathon and finish, but his goal that year was to run a marathon in less than 3 hours, and since he had already agreed with Jake that he would go again to the Chicago marathon, he didn't want to risk running in another marathon that year to get tired.
But in the next few years, Zack didn't intend to go back to Chicago anymore and he would just run in cities in North Carolina and force his family to watch his marathons, Jake didn't think it was that serious because he didn't even ask his mother to watch his marathons.
This time, unlike in recent years, everyone expected Jake to participate in this marathon in Chicago because Jake had done it in recent years and now the NBA season was rarely happening.
Jake had just run the Tokyo marathon that year and had won well and everyone expected Jake to win that marathon again and perhaps break the world record, Adidas and Gatorade had sent sponsors to Chicago and so everyone was even more sure that Jake would run in Chicago.
Of course, the Chicago marathon organizers already knew that Jake was going to participate, but they wanted to keep it a secret because they knew that Jake didn't normally announce when he would run any marathon.
Jake was running for the first time with Adidas sneakers and Adidas clothes, as Jake was committed to sponsorship he was even wearing an Adidas bandana, this was also the first time he was free to talk about his sponsors.
That's because in his time at university, Jake was forbidden to speak on behalf of the companies that sponsored him because he could only receive sponsorship because the university had specifically allowed this for Jake.
With one day left before the Chicago marathon, Zack and the others finally arrived and met Jake at the hotel where they would stay, his friends were impressed with the hotel where they would stay.
"Hi my friends, I missed you in the last few months."
"Hi Jake, we saw the NBA draft this year, congratulations on being the first pick and still playing for the Los Angeles Lakers."
"It's true, it is said that the Los Angeles Lakers team had already negotiated with the Los Angeles Clippers team to choose Jake in the first pick, this is even more incredible."
"Yes, it's a shame that the NBA season has been postponed and maybe it won't even happen, I miss watching the games."
"It's true, I miss the games too, I'm so sorry Jake that this happened in his first season in the NBA."
"It's okay, I had more time to do my thing thanks to that, and I believe that we will still have this NBA season, but we will only have games next year if these discussions continue."
With Jake saying that his friends started to wonder if Jake had inside information because he was a professional player and they were excited, of course, Jake had inside information, but it was because he knew the future and not because he was a professional player.
"But let's change the subject, Zack, do you think you're ready for this marathon?"
"Yes, I am confident that I will be able to run this marathon in less than three hours, because I did it once in training with Coach Davis before he left for Miami, so I am confident."
While Jake was in Australia filming he asked Coach Davis to stay at the university and continue teaching Zack until Jake returned to Miami, as Coach Davis was paid by Jake on a monthly basis and also liked Zack he accepted and helped Zack a lot in the latter months.
Coach Davis had even praised Zack saying he had the potential to become a professional marathon runner, of course after watching Jake run a marathon in just over 2 hours, it was difficult for Coach Davis to remain impressed with Zack.
After that they continued to talk about things that happened in the last few months, Jake talked about filming in Australia and they were all interested in watching the movie, Jake said he had bought a house in Los Angeles and invited them to see it in the future.
Of course, Jake didn't say about his business in Silicon Valley or about Kate, after all, Jake didn't want to expose Kate and they hadn't started dating yet and Jake didn't want to take any chances or tell his friends.
Another subject they talked about was the Tar Heels team, after all, even though Jake and almost all the players had left the team this season, the record of games being lost by the team would still continue next season.
Jake said he was confident that the current team would still be able to maintain that record until completing more than 70 games without losing which would make that record even more exciting, the others were not as optimistic as Jake and thought that the Tar Heels team would lose after two or three games.
They still talked at night and then everyone went to sleep because Jake and Zack had to run the marathon the next day and so they had to rest well to be prepared for the marathon.
The other day in the morning everyone woke up and left the hotel early to go to the place where the marathon would take place, as soon as they arrived the others went to where the crowd was and only Jake and Zack went to where the competitors were.
As soon as Jake arrived in the competitors' area there were athletes who started to recognize him because they expected Jake to participate in this marathon, some said that he would no longer run in marathons after entering the NBA because he already had a very high salary.
But most did not believe it because he had already won a gold medal at an Olympics and athletics world and would not give up just because he no longer needed the marathons to make money.
And that almost became true, of course, Jake still wanted to run the marathons and didn't really care about the money, but it was because with NBA games he normally wouldn't have time to compete in several marathons a year.
Maybe Jake wouldn't even be able to participate in this Chicago marathon any more if the Los Angeles Lakers team coach didn't allow it, of course, Jake would still run another marathon during the year and would run every Olympics.
"Good luck with that marathon, Zack, I trust you will be able to run that marathon in less than three hours."
"I also believe, to achieve this I am going to do something I always wanted to do and I think I am capable of that now."
"And what is this?"
"I will do like everyone else and run in the same group like you in the marathon and thus follow you for more than 15 km and then continue the marathon at my pace and so I will finish in less than 3 hours."
"If you really think you can follow my pace for 15 km and still finish the marathon at your pace, I approve of your idea."