Chapter 328 The Major Marathons 2
Coach Smith was also happy to see that Jake could play even better than he did in the final because in training all players were training to their maximum and improving all season.
Without Jake on the team the best players could be arrogant because they are already skilled and do not put so much effort into training, but seeing how Jake was so much better than them in games and training the most talented players wanted to train even more to overcome Jake.
That would make the whole team even better during the season, it was a shame that coach Dean Smith knew he could not continue coaching this team of geniuses, he was glad his last year as a coach ended as an NCAA tournament champion.
He had already started talking slowly with Coach Bill Guthridge, after all, Coach Bill Guthridge would be his successor to coach Tar Heels next season, if the team didn't win he thought of staying longer but with the team winning It was the best time to leave.
Of course, he decided not to say anything to the players so as not to hinder their training, after the holidays when everyone came back he would not be the team coach anymore, only Jake knew that among the players.
So it turned out that Coach Guthridge's favorite player was Jake, because Jake was the player on the team who most respected him and even talked to him more than Coach Smith, so next season Coach Guthridge was already thinking about using Jake as the main player of the Tar Heels team since the beginning of the season.
Maybe even Coach Smith decided to do the same thing after all Jake had a great season even though he didn't play all season as a midfielder, at first he didn't play much time in the games.
Jake showed all of his skill and even if he thought about entering the NBA draft this year he would definitely be the highlight, so everyone could say that it was already worth it for Jake to go to university instead of joining the NBA directly.
Even if Jake decided to enter the NBA now with the grades he had, it was almost certain that the university would somehow arrange for Jake to still get his degree even while playing in the NBA.
But Jake wanted to spend some more time at the university which was where he had a lot of fun with his teammates, besides, Jake already had some plans when he entered the NBA and for that, he needed more time and his sports agent David Falk.
David just called Jake to congratulate him on winning the NCAA tournament, but he didn't want to talk to Jake while he was still at university so they wouldn't have unnecessary rumors.
After this season David was even more convinced that Jake could be the next player to be the main NBA star just as Michael Jordan was now, even though there were players with similar skills that Jake became known earlier and had David Falk as his agent.
But this was all for next year, now Jake wanted to focus on his training to run the marathons he would have in the coming months, Jake had decided to run 4 marathons this season.
Two of those marathons would be this April, he warned after the final game for John to organize his entries, he would first run the London marathon in over a week and then run the Boston marathon.
When they heard this his coach Frank Davis and John thought Jake was crazy, after all the difference between the two marathons would be only 8 days, no runner in the world would try to run these two marathons to winning in that short time.
Besides, one of those marathons would be in another country and he would have to make a long trip and get tired even more, but Jake didn't care what they thought because he wanted to win every major marathon he could this year.
Unfortunately, he had lost the Tokyo marathon, but the other three were still possible for Jake to win, this year he wanted to win these three marathons and thus secure three more statistic points which would help him in next year's basketball season.
Plus, Jake had something no elite marathoner in the world has, if he could beat this London marathon he would get a Resistance stat point and an agility point, so he would be even better off running in Boston.
And early next year he would race and win in Tokyo even if he had to lose a game with the basketball team, after all, Jake knew that after joining the NBA it would be even harder for him to take time to run these marathons.
If Jake could win the four marathons he intended to race this year he was sure he would have even more fame and stand out even more in the sports world, after all, he didn't know anyone who could win 7 different marathons.
In addition, he had already won 2 times in Chicago and this year he would race again in Chicago, so this year he would have won 9 marathons in total if he counted 3 times in Chicago, few marathon runners in this world or none would be able to do that.
So when he negotiated upcoming sponsorship contracts as soon as he entered the NBA he was sure he would get a great deal early on because of what he did at university and in marathons.
Frank Davis and John couldn't even imagine that Jake intended to win these 4 marathons, after all, they thought that even though he was talented Jake had been lucky to win so many marathons after all even elite runners have days when they perform poorly.
Jake continued training with Zack who could already run 25 km every day after Zack got in shape he could already be considered a great amateur athlete, so how much he ran easily increased as it was with Jake in the beginning.
In addition, Zack already ran that 25 km every day in a good time for an amateur athlete, so he could run a half marathon quietly, Jake suggested that Zack try a half marathon just to gain more confidence.
But Zack didn't want to, his dream was to run a full marathon and not a half marathon, knowing that Jake told Zack he would run the Chicago marathon with him, the Chicago marathon was just after their vacation so Zack would have time enough to prepare.
Frank Davis said that in fact, Zack was already able to run a full marathon, but Jake didn't think that was a good idea, he trained for over 6 months with Zack and can realize that his friend really loved running and so he would have to train Zack to have a marathon result that could boast for a lifetime.
As Jake had already said the training he was doing might not be the fastest way to prepare someone to run a marathon, but after that training, Zack would be almost a complete athlete and if he ran from time to time for a few km he would still be in good health for all life.
Even more, after Jake had gone through some of the training that Coach Davis had given him, the training had gotten even better and so Zack had improved faster in recent months, Aaron had recovered too and was training to get back in shape and fitness he was doing a good job.
While Jake was training a week quickly, Jake warned Coach Smith that he would not go to training and went to London to run the marathon, John was already in London and had prepared the hotel for Jake.
Jake asked if Coach Davis would like to go to London to accompany the marathon, but Coach Davis said that Jake was already well prepared and ready to win this marathon if he only ran as he did every day.
It was easy for John to sign up Jake for this marathon because the organizers sent Jake an invitation this year, the London marathon was one of the most important in the world and the most important in England.
So it was only natural that they wanted to have Jake participate as he was the current Olympic champion and have the current marathon world record, yet the London Marathon organization itself did not expect Jake to participate because everyone knew he had just finished the Basketball season as the champion.
So they were very happy to know that Jake was going to participate in this marathon, John was sent by the company that sponsored Jake to accompany Jake in every marathon he participated in this year, after all, Jake was the best investment the company had made in recent years.
John's company today was the one that profited the most from sales after making the contract with Jake, this was because Clara and Tiffany's companies hadn't been investing in companies in recent years because they had Robert's stock to buy.
That's why John's companies that had a sports-related product and younger audience, as well as a much larger production, gained a lot in those years with Jake's achievements and sponsorship.
The other morning Jake was ready to run the marathon and went to where the race would start, in a few hours Jake was ready for the marathon and John stayed where the race would come to be there if Jake won this time too.
"This year we are here again for the 1997 London Marathon, some of the best marathoners in the world are attending this year's marathon, we all look forward to another exciting race and perhaps a record being broken to make this race historic."