Chapter 392 The Last Major Marathon 6
Jake naturally didn't care, he looked around and didn't see any of the athletes who were first placed in this marathon in the past and it became more peaceful if good athletes ran in the same group as him and could keep pace Jake would have to break his record in order to win.
Jake felt that he was not in his best physical condition to run this marathon, even though he had almost a full day after the plane trip to rest he still hadn't fully recovered.
This was something that had never happened to Jake, luckily he decided to come two days before the marathon, so he can rest a little longer before the marathon, so if several athletes ran with him it would be good for Jake to save energy.
Even so, the first 10 km were easy for him and for the other athletes running with him, even though his pace was fast, it was not so fast that the other athletes could not follow the first km of the marathon.
Everyone could see that Jake was the most comfortable with this race pace and that he came to win more of this marathon for his career, unfortunately, part of the crowd did not know him and only supported his group because he was in the first place.
"A good start to the marathon for Jake, he managed to find a group that is running with him and even though he has no experience in that marathon, Jake is doing very well."
"So he will be able to save energy for the final part of this marathon, and in the final part of the marathon that Jake normally slows down his running pace a lot, this is an interesting strategy that seems to have worked for him."
"It is usually in the final part of the marathon that athletes who have more stamina decide to accelerate the pace to try to finish the marathon in a better position or just with a better time."
"But it is in the final part of the marathon where the athletes are most tired so it is not a logical strategy, for Jake who knows his resistance well, he runs at a strong and steady pace in more than 30 km and in the final part of the race, it decreases his running pace."
"As Jake is currently number one in the world in the marathons, who knows in the future we will see more athletes running like that."
Many asked Jake why he ran like that and he just said it was his style of running because he couldn't say that the pace he ran in the first 30 km is his normal pace and in the end, he slows down the race to not break the world record in the entire marathon.
He didn't even know if his strategy was the right one and didn't expect other athletes to run like him, Jake ran like that because he had a lot of physical statistics that helped him run better and not have the risk of getting hurt, but the other Jake didn't know.
Even though Jake was not in his best physical condition, running a marathon at the pace he ran every day in training was not difficult for him, it was precisely what Jake trained so hard every day, for his body to get used to.
After going through the 20 km marathon some athletes who were running in Jake's group were starting to get tired and were thinking and leaving the group to be able to finish the marathon.
Few in Jake's group still did not feel tired after 20 km as well as Jake, this was expected because if they could keep up with Jake up to 30 km they could get a place in the top 20 even if they slow down the race pace a lot.
The good thing about running with elite athletes was that they could keep up with Jake until after 30 km and the downside was that sometimes some athletes could keep up with Jake until he slowed down like in the last marathon.
Jake knew that maybe in the other marathons that would not happen anymore because when he changed his daily training Jake would also start to change the pace he ran in the marathons, he wanted to prepare himself for one day to be ready to run a marathon in less than 2 hours.
Jake also knew that in the next few years in many marathons running under 2 hours and 6 minutes would become normal for the winners, at that time Jake's world record had to be 2 hours and 2 minutes for him to be at ease.
Even more because Jake didn't know when he could earn more points of resistance and agility stats, so if he wasn't able to run in less than 2 hours after winning this marathon and training hard he didn't know if he could ever do it.
When Jake reached 30 km of the marathon he was already running alone, the other elite athletes who were with him decided to leave a few km behind even though they were not so tired and could still continue.
Jake didn't know it was because of him that he sometimes ran at this pace until 35 km and the athletes didn't know how far Jake would continue to run like that, Jake was not tired, but he was starting to feel some difference after running 30 km.
"It has already been 30 km from the Tokyo marathon we are following, Jake remains in the lead, but now he is running alone because the group that was with him did not support Jake's intense running pace."
"Jake is still looking good and not being tired even after running for more than half the marathon, we'll see how far Jake can continue at this fast pace of running and whether we'll see Jake winning another marathon his first in 1998."
Jake still kept running at this pace for another 3 km and decided to slow down the running pace when he started feeling tired, his physical condition was even worse than he thought and if he didn't start to control the running pace it was possible that he couldn't finish this marathon in a long time.
Jake remembered that Alberto Juzdado who won this marathon in the past managed a time of just over 2 hours and 8 minutes, so Jake had to do a lot less time if he wanted to win that last major marathon that he needed to win the 6.
Even though it was harder to run in the marathon, Jake was still able to keep up thanks to the things he learned from training with coach Frank Davis, Jake was happy to have decided to hire a professional coach to help him.
Jake knew that Coach Davis didn't think he had helped him so much because when he started working with him, it was when Jake had won several marathons and managed to be recognized as the best in marathons.
But in fact, Coach Davis taught Jake everything he needed to know to be even better and not just depend on his physical stats, and Coach Davis's main job was still to help Jake win several gold medals in the next Olympics.
Jake was different from other athletes and did not always have time to train and many trainings could not be done because of his basketball games or because of other commitments, so Jake was grateful only because Coach Davis agreed to coach him.
After Jake slowed down his running pace he stopped feeling the fatigue he was feeling and managed to run more comfortably in the marathon, with the pace he was running he calculated that he would win easily with more than 1-minute advantage for the second place.
After going through 40 km of the marathon Jake was still running comfortably with his pace and it was only a few kilometers before the marathon was over, Jake was happy because he saw that he could win this marathon which was the last of the 6 major marathons he had to win.
It was one of the most difficult marathons for him to run in recent years because his physical condition was still very bad, the atmosphere in the marathon was different and it was a new route, so Zhang Yi felt even better for winning this marathon.
"Jake is in the final part of the marathon, this is the eleventh marathon he has won in his four-year career, we don't know why Jake decided to run in that marathon even though he had a game with his basketball team, but we hope that this victory will leave he satisfied."
"After this surprise that Jake came to run in the Tokyo marathon, who knows, we can expect to see Jake participate in several marathons during this year, we all know that Jake loves to run and we also like to see him win."
"And now Jake finishes the 1998 Tokyo marathon first, he finished with a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 11 seconds, this is the new record for this Tokyo marathon, an excellent time for Jake who is running the first his marathon this year."
"The runner-up is still not even close to getting there, we will continue to follow this year to see if Jake will continue to win the marathons."
Jake finished the comfortable marathon because he was used to running more than 50 km in training at a faster pace than that, but Jake felt tired and really wasn't feeling as well as he normally did after the marathons.
Jake did not hesitate and ate a stamina bar as the marathon was over and started to feel much better, he had not decided if he would return that day to the university or if he would return the next day, but after that marathon, Jake realized that he had no choice, but travel only in the other day.
So he would have to follow his team's game in Tokyo and hope his team won, Jake received the prize for first place and also received for the record he broke.
Jake talked to the representative of the marathon who gave the award in Japanese and dismissed the translator, this impressed everyone and left an impression on Jake's best Japanese audience.