Chapter 204 A Little Crisis 3
"That's true, in the NBA teams play a lot of games a month and have to travel across the country, I don't think Jake would be released just to participate in a marathon."
"This is if he gets into the NBA of course, even if he's a good player we'll have to wait a few years to see, seeing how well he goes in the marathon I find it hard to believe that God has given him so many talents."
"But I think if he could choose for sure he would rather have the knack for being a basketball star than a marathon winning athlete."
"Hahaha, that for sure."
Even commentators thought basketball was more important than athletics in the United States, but that was normal, so much so that in many countries athletes have no financial support from their countries to participate in athletics competitions.
Even so, talented people like Jake would choose other sports or even a normal job than being athletes and bringing medals to the country.
But more popular sports like basketball didn't need government support for the players because the companies and fans were moving enough money to pay the athletes' millionaire salaries.
As Jake approached the 39 km race he felt much more tired, so Jake realized that he was definitely having the same problem he had in the state championship final and couldn't make the most of his performance.
The problem was that Jake discovered this too late and ran more than half of the marathon with a faster running pace and his body in its current state could not stand as the marathon was him alone he could not count on anyone but him.
Even if that happened Jake was still very decisive, when he realized he couldn't complete the marathon at his current pace he slowed his running speed, luckily he was 1 and a half minutes faster than the last marathon.
So Jake remembered that German finished this race in his past life in 2 hours and 11 minutes, with Jake's current speed he could finish the marathon in 2 hours and 4 and a half minutes, so he was close to 7 minutes ahead.
Since Jake was just over 3 km away to finish the marathon, it was almost impossible for him to lose even if he slowed in half.
So he was decisive and slowed in half to finish this marathon first, and as Jake thought even commentators already thought of Jake as the winner.
"Just over 3 km to finish this marathon, if Jake continues at this speed he can, in addition, to win break the New York marathon speed record."
"That's right, the current record is for Juma Ikangaa who in 1989 finished the race in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 1 second, but in fact, if Jake can maintain that speed he could even break the marathon world record."
"Yeah, but it looks like it won't happen today, runner Jake now seems to be drastically slowing down his running pace, I think he might be in trouble right now."
"It's really a shame, but he's still young so it seems he couldn't control his running pace well and so it looked like he could break all the records, but now he must have little energy."
"This is really dangerous, for him to slow his pace whether it is a serious fatigue problem or even a muscle problem, Jake seemed to have control of his pace and has already slowed down the race once before halfway through the race."
"He sure has talent, but since he's always running alone and without a group, he must have accelerated too much without realizing it and got tired."
"That's right, after all, it's been just over a month since the Chicago Marathon and he was trying to run at a much faster pace, almost 5 minutes less."
"Fortunately he has a lead of more than 7 minutes to runner-up so victory still looks guaranteed."
Jake thought so too and ran a lot slower, but after another 1 and a half kilometers he saw that German who was second was approaching, meaning that in the end, he must have taken more than 2 minutes in that km.
What shocked Jake was that the system had warned that Jake should stop running now because he was at risk of injury.
This shocked Jake that even at his top training speed he was still able to go over 46 km before having a risk of a muscle injury, but now he ran the whole marathon much slower and shortly after 40 km the system said he could suffer an injury.
Jake was outraged by what was happening, he did not expect the unknown problem to affect his physical condition so much, after all, he could accept that it affected his skill in basketball which also required techniques but was now physically affecting him.
Jake was in a big dilemma now, if it was one of his workouts even if it wasn't urgent as soon as the system mentioned a risk of injury Jake immediately stopped and sat until he was recovered.
But now he was in the middle of a major marathon, he was first with great advantage to German who was second and also just over 1km to finish the marathon.
Jake had three choices at this time of the marathon, he could give up and lose everything he did in that marathon and so would avoid an injury, he could also risk running even if he suffered an injury to try to finish the race in sacrifice and try to take first place.
Or he could eat a stamina bar, Jake knew after experimenting a few times that the stamina bar in addition to fully recovering Jake's energy would still greatly relax his muscles and take away the tension.
If he ate the stamina bar he could easily finish the New York marathon first and avoid the injury, but Jake knew he really had only one choice.
He could not give up because this marathon was not only about him but also had Jake's responsibility to his sponsors, so he could not give up near the end and almost win.
He couldn't eat the stamina bar either because Jake knew it would be like cheating, so even if he won it would stay in his mind all his life.
So the only option Jake had was to force himself to finish the marathon even risking injury, of course, he only took that risk because the marathon was ending and also because Jake had no more basketball or marathon games to run before February. from another year.
So Jake knew that with the help of the system and his strong physical statistics he would not be injured for long, so Jake decided to ignore the system warning and keep running.
The system that could understand Jake's thoughts also stopped bothering with the injury warning and just watched the marathon ends.
In fact Jake was overcoming a fear he had always had in his heart now, having been unable to move his legs in his past life for over 20 years, Jake was afraid of being injured and unable to walk for a while.
But now he was facing this fear in order to win, Jake still kept his speed for a few hundred meters until he felt a sharp pain in his right leg.
Even though he was prepared for the pain Jake still fell for a moment losing his stride, German who was approaching Jake, the commentators and the audience watching at home on television, as well as the local people, were startled by it.
Even slowing down Jake was still almost certain to win a marathon under 1km to complete the marathon.
Jake still struggled to get up and keep running, he just ran a little slower than before despite feeling a lot of pain in his right leg, he could only continue because his strength and endurance statistics were so high.
German felt sorry for Jake that it was a track and field genius to be so unlucky at the end of the race, but he was a pro and would not miss this opportunity to win the marathon a second time.
"Really unbelievable what is happening to athlete Jake, someone so young and talented has been so unlucky and it looks like he will lose this marathon."
"It's really a shame what happened to this young genius, but he's human and after running a marathon just a little over a month from Chicago he's straining his muscles a lot."
"That's true, I see he seems to have had a right leg muscle injury, Jake seems to be in a lot of pain and yet still runs like no injury I really admire this young man's character and courage."
"It's a shame he will lose, I respect German who won last year and is about to win again, but Jake clearly deserved to win this marathon."
Commentators said they respected Jake for striving to finish the same hurting marathon, but if they knew that Jake chose to hurt himself instead of cheating they would respect him even more.
Only 200 meters to the end of the marathon track German finally passed Jake who was running fast despite being hurt and in pain, German looked at Jake with respect as he passed him.
Jake was not too shaken by this since he had expected it when he gave up eating the stamina bar, he was glad he was guaranteed second at least, third place was still far behind.
German won the New York Marathon with just over 2 hours and 11 minutes of running, and Jake came in second with 2 hours, 11 minutes and 45 seconds as the final time.
Jake regretted not winning, but was pleased with the second place due to the circumstances of the race, he was angry to not know the reason for this problem that has upset him twice and even made him lose the chance to win this. marathon.
But he would have to see that after he got home and had time to think.