Chapter 262 Starting the Season for Sports 4
Everyone considered Jake a rival in this race, but still expected to have many chances to win, a marathon is a race that can always have an unexpected result, the weather of the day, the temperature and even the condition of the athletes had to be taken into account to the result.
Rarely did an athlete dominate the marathon events for many years without any rivals, it showed how unpredictable the sport was in its results, Jake also knew it and so always made such a hard training routine.
The winner of this event in Jake's past life was Paul Evans, this was a special year in which two UK athletes won this event in men and women, a result that has rarely happened in history.
Paul Evans was the toughest opponent Jake faced in a marathon, after all, Paul's final time was less than 2 hours and 9 minutes, only 1 time Jake managed to run in less than 2 hours and 9 minutes in his previous marathons.
Of course, the reason for this was that Jake always slowed his running pace when he secured first place and therefore finished the race in a long time, which was the biggest reason Jake decided to start training before the Chicago Marathon with a speed fastest race.
So Jake would be sure to finish the race first even if he decided to slow down the final kilometers after all Jake knew well that a race time in training could not always be repeated in the official marathon because of the pressure of the race.
Jake was also thinking that if he is in good physical shape in the final kilometers and is confident he would try to race to set the current world record, it was a possible time for Jake after his new training and his strongest physical stats.
After a few more minutes the 1996 Chicago Major Marathon officially started, Jake decided to run at a slower pace at first to keep up with the other athletes and after a few kilometers, he could take advantage of them.
So Jake knew his first kilometers would be slower and he would have to push a little harder in the second part of the race, but it was worth it as long as he didn't waste much time on those first kilometers.
"The annual Chicago marathon has officially started and after a few hours we will know who will be the winners."
"Do you have any favorites for today's race?"
"I think the favorite for this race is for sure Jake, he won here last year and is trying again this year."
"I also think he's the favorite, Jake ran his first official marathon here last year at just 16 and nobody expected anything from him, this year is completely different, he took second place in New York after winning here this year past and still won the Olympic gold this year. "
"No doubt he's a favorite, plus his running time has only been improved since New York so far, Jake also seemed to have learned to choose the best path to run without wasting energy."
"Yes, that comes with experience, this is Jake's 5 official marathon, amazing to have those numbers with only 17 years and 1 year as a pro."
"And in the last 4 marathons he came in the top 2 in all and won 4 of those events, that data really shows why he won a gold medal."
Unlike other times commentators just praised Jake who had won so soon, a talented young genius is nice for anyone to see, and Jake is still an American who hasn't had good athletes winning in marathons for a few years.
Maybe it was Jake who could positively influence young people to compete and get more people to know and appreciate marathons if that happened these commentators would only gain from it as the Chicago Marathon broadcast.
This time they didn't mention the fact that Jake also played basketball for a university, many didn't even know which university Jake was at because everyone thought Jake had decided to become a pro marathoner instead of basketball.
It was what any normal person would do, it was impressive to compete in two sports when they were younger, but when you grow up you have to choose one of them, it was common sense for everyone to make that choice.
Also, after Jake won a gold medal at a major event like the Olympics no one else could deny his talent as an athlete, even if Jake never won anything in his life from now on he would always be remembered as one of the top names of the sport.
Of course, Jake didn't care about common sense and wanted to do even more than that, he wanted to become an NBA star and win multiple titles, and also wanted to win many more gold medals and other athletics modalities as well.
In the first few kilometers of the marathon, Jake just like everyone else was still running along with other athletes while taking turns leading the group, so they wasted less energy, in Jake's group he was the leader among the athletes.
Even when not leading the group they all followed the same racing pace as Jake because they knew it was the best thing to do, Jake didn't care about that because he didn't consider any of those in his group to be rivals.
Fortunately, this was ideal for Jake who ran at his running pace as he did in training, so the group of 8 was the first platoon in this marathon, everyone realized that Jake's running speed was too strong for them.
But everyone in this group was professional and intended to reach the top 100 at least, so they thought it best to follow Jake's pace in the first few kilometers and then slow down in the second half of the race.
After 15 km of running the group was still far ahead of other competitors, with just this distance nobody felt tired and everyone followed Jake in the support stations to hydrate.
They were still running at a much faster pace than they usually did, but as this was a steady pace they didn't get tired that much, so this group of 8 people staying together was unusual in the races.
Especially for everyone besides Jake they didn't want to try to win, the reason for that was that Jake always kept the same running pace and didn't try to speed up just to leave the others behind.
Jake felt a little pity for the people who competed in his group, he knew this was good for them and wanted to help those people who were not his competitors have a good time.
Unfortunately, they were unlucky to try to follow Jake when he was running at a much faster pace than he usually did so they couldn't keep up with him for long.
"Jake is in the first platoon leading the marathon, this group is a bit different and has no runner who has good placements in previous marathons, the best of this group managed to reach thirtieth in a past marathon."
"Maybe they may have improved a lot and have a chance of winning this year, they are competing with Jake who is the first favorite."
"I don't think it's like that, it seems like Jake is leading this group and setting the pace they run, I think the others can't keep up like that for a long time."
Just as the commentators talked, the athletes who knew their bodies well realized this problem close to 18 km of running, so they started to fall behind and Jake kept running at the same pace.
The other 7 in the group slowed down together and knew they had to stay together, after all, they were almost 3 minutes ahead of the second platoon that was far behind, this second platoon also came at a fast running pace and the 7 had to slow down further your racing pace.
Only then did they realize how strong their running pace was following Jake, they also realized that this was an excellent opportunity for them to be in the top 50 if they kept a running pace a little less than they normally ran they still had a very big advantage.
Washing at least 10 km more for the top 10 runners to pass them if they slowed down their racing rhythms, Jake no longer cared about the athletes in the group he ran with.
As he passed the 20km race the commentators were surprised again, Jake was running at a steady pace like a clock thanks to his experience and the system dashboard he had.
"Jake has passed the 20 km mark and leads with a lot of lead to the runner-up, he's running at an incredible pace of fewer than 3 minutes every 1 km, so he's gone 20 km in 58 minutes."
"He is really running fast, less than an hour and he has reached almost half of the marathon if his pace continued so he could beat the marathon world record."
"Really, but it's almost impossible for him to keep that pace, in New York he was running at a slower pace than that and suffered an injury in the final kilometers of the marathon and struggled to reach second, it was his worst time in a marathon. "
"An injury happens to marathon runners, that was a coincidence and proves that Jake is able to run at this pace, not to mention that he's much more experienced now after the Olympics."
The commentators seemed to disagree about it, but both were concerned that Jake was running at a very strong pace and could end up getting hurt by it, after all, Jake winning would be very good for the organizers of this marathon and also for the commentators.
Jake was over 25 km and still keeping the same running pace, in fact, he was having the best race of his life, the weather on this marathon day was very good and Jake knew the track well as he ran for the second time and did the Imagination training before the marathon.
In fact Jake thought he was better now than in his everyday training, elite professional marathoners prefer to train on the regular road rather than on an official track like Jake did because running always in circles could slow down an athlete.