Chapter 203 A Little Crisis 2
So he could at least shorten his time by more than 1 minute, Jake was thinking of the Olympics and also some years where marathons would become more recognized and stronger athletes would start competing.
Records would be made under the best time Jake could run now, so he had to improve as much as he could while he had time to train, because he still wanted to train to compete in other track and field events.
As far as basketball was concerned Jake was the most dedicated, even though he was away from team training he still did his imagination training, as usual, every day, Jake thought that before the national championship he could improve his skill rank which didn't change much in the last months.
Jake knew that now each raise could make a lot of difference in a game because now Jake was getting to the pro level, Jake wanted to secure that national championship more before going to college.
After a few more days the New York marathon day finally came, as it was a major marathon, over 25,000 people were present that day to participate, Jake chatted a little with John and one of Tiffany's staff and began to prepare. to the marathon.
John said he would be waiting for Jake at the race's arrival, probably he also hoped that Jake could win this marathon more.
Normally Jake would be much more confident than in the Chicago marathon because this was not his first competition and he had even won in Chicago before, even more, so Jake improved a lot after winning the reward for winning in Chicago.
But he was still afraid of having another bad performance as in the state basketball championship final, in that game he could count on his teammates and the level of the opponents was not very high.
But now any mistake could cause Jake to lose this marathon, besides, he was with the best athletes in the world competing with him, these athletes would not be defeated if Jake couldn't do his best.
Even with the nervousness and the pressure, Jake managed to calm down when the race really started, he didn't have much to think about after the race began, with his training he knew he had stamina and with the help of the system he could control better your running pace.
Television commentators were also paying special attention to Jake, after all, Jake was just 16 years old and had just won the Chicago Marathon, many also knew that Jake had recently won the state high school basketball championship and was the MVP. of the championship.
So it was normal for everyone to pay close attention to himself that they didn't expect Jake to win this marathon either, after all, it was very rare for an athlete to win two marathons in a row and even rarer if it was in different marathons.
Even more, the Chicago and New York marathon that took place at a break of just over 1 month, I 1 month many athletes would not dare to compete again, much less like Jake still did playing basketball while recovering.
In addition to Jake other athletes also caught the public's attention, but only last year's winner was Mexican German Silva, even though many thought he could not win again. German was well known for having missed the marathon path last year.
He even earned the nickname Wrong Way Silva, but it was amazing that even if he missed the path he had still won the marathon, in the last 5 years Mexicans had won the New York marathon 3 times and German could win 4 times in 5 years.
Jake was also worried about German because he knew that German had won this marathon in his past life, now Jake wanted it not to happen again.
After ten kilometers of running, Jake had already passed most of the amateur runners who just ran at a faster pace and didn't even think about finishing the race.
He was feeling good even running at a pace of 2 minutes 56 seconds per km, which was 4 seconds less than in the last race, it gave Jake more confidence by showing that he had to rely on his daily training, so he could finish this test with a good time.
Even so Jake was realizing that his running pace was not as good as in the last race and in training, even though he managed to make the time he planned every 5 km, sometimes he would run very fast and then have to slow down.
Jake knew this was bad because every time he ran faster he used up a lot more energy, after all, he was running to the limit to win the race, while other runners were often running in groups and some even had rabbits to set the pace right.
Jake didn't think he needed any of this after running the Chicago marathon, but in the race, he realized that there were points where it was more appropriate to slow down and other points where it was appropriate to accelerate.
All of this was derived from the experiences of some past marathon runners, not to mention that running in groups or with rabbits was useful because the runner could protect himself from drafts coming in the opposite direction and tired him out.
These were all things Jake had blindly missed since he was very confident in himself and the system and had won his debut marathon, this time he was a little unsure he realized that if he did how others could get some time yet best.
Commentators who didn't know Jake was passing and thinking were just seeing Jake running very well in the first half of the race, after all, they thought Jake had his own style of running after winning the Chicago Marathon.
"Runner Jake seems to be doing very well in this marathon too, I confess I didn't think he would participate in this race after running just under a month ago."
"You can't compare Jake to normal people, just because he's running a high-level 16-year-old marathon and still playing basketball at his school shows he's special."
"That's true, even though athletics is not as popular as basketball around the world, it's even more impressive that at age 16 Jake is competing with the best with a chance to win."
"Even more because he is an American and has appeared at the right time near the upcoming Olympics in our country, it is yet another medal promise for our country."
"Do you think Jake had participated in the Olympics? I thought he would try a youth athletics world for his age."
"If I could win by competing with the best I would definitely choose to participate in the Olympics, he could have the honor of winning the gold medal across the country and still so young, I don't think he would give that up."
"It's because he is so young that I don't think he should, in 4 years he will be 21, he can participate in 4 more Olympics after that if he wanted as an athlete in the marathon, no need to risk everything now."
"Then we can only wait and see what he will choose, the ability we all know he has for it."
Jake didn't know the commentators were talking about him and was trying to focus on the race and set his pace so he wouldn't get bored in the end.
After driving the 20 km he slowed his running speed as he had planned, but he seemed not in good condition and still could not run at the right pace accelerating sometimes after changing speed.
Still, his body was still fine, which was normal if he considered that he would run even more than 20 km, so if he was feeling tired now he could give up the marathon.
Even so, Jake was well ahead of the other riders at this time of the race, because the second group sometimes increased the pace at the best points and slowed down the hardest paths and Jake always kept the same pace.
Before Jake thought he was doing right, but now he realized that he just tired more doing it, after all, they had points that he could run faster and hold on wasting time and in places, he had to slow down he forced to keep pace.
After the 32km race he began to feel the marathon tiredness, Jake felt that he was worse than his workouts and than the last marathon, he did not know if he could finish the marathon running at the same pace as he was now.
Unlike before Jake was feeling tired and also very thirsty and for the first time in his marathons went through a support station to get water.
Since he was not used to doing this in training Jake ended up breaking the running pace he had finally set again and still took all the water feeling bloated afterward.
"This is the first time I've ever seen Jake stopping at one of the support stations in this marathon, from what I've heard, he didn't even need to stop in Chicago."
"This is normal, it's been over an hour and a half, and it's about noon where the heat and wear are greatest, in Chicago that the race starts earlier and it's colder it's been able to go on and on."
"Apparently Jake is not used to going through race support stations, he seems to have lost his running pace after the stop and the water didn't do him much good."
"We sometimes forget about this because he won in Chicago, but this is just his second official marathon and for Jake's age I don't think he has participated in any amateur marathon before."
"True, but it also shows that he has a lot to improve and evolve even though he's one of the best 16-year-old marathon athletes, who knows in the future we can't see Jake winning every marathon in the year."
"This is hard to imagine, he shouldn't even have much time to train now and don't forget that if one day Jake enters the NBA basketball this marathon routine is over for him."