<h4>Chapter 354 Back for the Sophomore Year 8</h4>


    Jake started running at a strong pace after leaving Zack behind at the start of this marathon, soon as if agreed in advance several athletes started running in the group formed to run along with Jake.


    That was one of the reasons he liked to race in Chicago and America, he didn’t expect it to be, but he always did when he met people who ran with him.


    Jake was also surprised to see that two well-known American athletes who would be in the top 20 were running in the same group as him, was Jerry Lawson who had already won the California Marathon in 1993 and Todd Williams who participated in two Olympics and two World Championships. in Athletics.


    They both knew well how Jake was running at a perfect running pace and wanted to run with him all through this marathon, they didn’t know if they would keep up with Jake until the end, but if they could hold on until he slowed it was almost certain that they would be in the top 5.


    Jake was happy about it and also a little nervous, he hoped the two athletes could run this marathon at the same pace as he ran, if he kept that pace throughout the Chicago marathon he knew he would win and they couldn’t keep up with him.


    But to do that he would have to break the world record again in this marathon and make much better time than in thest marathon in Berlin, so he hoped the two would just run at his pace and not try to beat him in the final kilometers.


    Of course Jake didn’t expect them to simply stop running and let him win because the marathon was apetition and not a friendly race for everyone to run together, having other athletes running at the same pace as he was a valid tactic to win the marathon.


    With a group running along with him Jake could save as much stamina and energy as he could in this marathon after he learned some techniques with Coach Davis and running with other athletes he could keep pace running smoothly.


    The athletes running with Jake were also elite athletes and with this steady pace even running faster they could easily follow, after the 10km of this marathon, Jake’s group was the leader of the race and far ahead of the other athletes.


    "Jake has been running at a strong pace in this marathon as is his characteristic in marathons after 10km of the race his group is the leader and I can recognize some elite athletes running in his group."


    "Yes, this has happened several times when Jake ran marathons in America, in the United States. Jake as the best athlete in the world and being an American is a kind of idol to other athletes and well respected even by other American athletes."


    "Everyone knows that Jake is known for running at a strong pace and also for the great stamina he has, so in these races the other elite athletes who didn’t think about winning marathons ran at the same pace as Jake for more than half of the time the marathons."


    "But some elite athletes running with Jake in this marathon may be thinking of winning and not just keeping up with Jake’s pace for more than half of that marathon, we can see for the first time in a long time Jake having a hard time winning a marathon."


    The weather was great in this marathon and not tiring the other athletes of this marathon, it was great weather to break various types of records, while Jake was leading this marathon as always running with a group of elite athletes, Zack was far behind in the marathon running as it had trained.


    Zack’s pace was just under 5 minutes 42 seconds per km, that’s the average Jake and Coach Davis told him to run, but they knew Zack would be unable to keep up a steady pace like Jake could do.


    So they told him to try to analyze his time every 5 km of race and adjust to knowing how his race pace was, so in the final kilometers of the race if he realized he still had a lot of energy he could run as fast as he could. he could and try to finish the Chicago marathon before 4 o’clock.


    This was quite possible because Zack was already running more than 20km a day running at a much faster running pace than this, so he should have enough energy to run this marathon at a slower pace than he normally did.


    Jake and Coach Davis knew that in the marathon the athlete got more energy because they knew they were participating in a marathon and because of the crowd, so it was certain that Zack could easilyplete this marathon even if he could not do it in 4 hours.


    Another strategy that Jake and Coach Davis came to him was to run along with other athletes in groups to save energy and hydrate when he could, as Zack ran at a time when most athletes ran close he could always find a group to run.


    Running with Jake he learned a little how-to keep his running pace and having a watch he could always control himself, when he went through the 5 km running he saw that he was running at the right pace and so was happy.


    In the leadership group, Jake still ran with the other athletes and felt great even though he ran more than 15km in this marathon, the other elite athletes didn’t look tired even running at the same pace as Jake.


    After running for many km he stopped thinking about what he would do at the end of the marathon and just controlled himself to run normally, even if he had to break his world record to win was not a bad thing for him.


    After all Jake was already thinking of increasing the pace of his training on his next vacation, and Jake was already sharing the focus of his training with other long-distance modalities besides marathons.


    After winning the 6 marathons major Jake would have already won everything he could in the marathon world and would only have the records to break that could cheer him up, of course, the Olympics and World Championships in Athletics would also make him excited to win a medal of gold for his country.


    Jake had already started his training to run the 10,000 meters and soon would start training to run the 5,000 meters and maybe before the next Olympics he started training to run the 1,500 meters, he already had the agility to achieve this.


    Even after passing the 20km in this marathon the other athletes in the same group of Jake did not look tired and were already several minutes ahead of the other athletes of this marathon and could be in the top 20 that was their goal, this good weather for Running also helped everyone.


    "Almost half of this Chicago marathon is over and Jake’s group is still leading the way quietly, it’s great weather here in Chicago so these athletes can take many more km before they get tired."


    "True, with this climate and great athletes running in this group we could be seeing the top 10 of this marathon and maybe some of these athletes will make Jake have to work harder to win and maybe break the world record again this year."


    "Okay, a lot of marathon experts andmentators like me think Jake actually has the ability to run far below what he’s been running, even in Berlin a lot of people realized that after winning breaking the world record Jake didn’t even look like being tired."


    "Yes, if you think he ran very close to that when he was 16 at the first marathon in Chicago, it is natural to think that after more than two years of training and also developing his body because we realize how Jake grew so much taller in those years he can run much lower than in that marathon."


    "Admittedly, Jake is the best marathon runner of this decade and now and many think this is just the beginning and that Jake can keep winning for another 20 years if he wants to, so Jake is perhaps the best marathon runner ever."


    Many really hoped that the athletes running in Jake’s group would endure racing with him up to 35km and so focused on Jake keeping a strong pace and breaking the world record again.


    While Jake was running nearly halfway through the race Zack was about 10 km from the marathon, he still easily found running groups that ran at the same pace as him, but the groupsgged behind or would go forward and he just focused on keeping up with him.


    Like Jake, Zack trained on an athletic track and so always ran alone and was used to it, plus the better marathon weather and the crowd just helped Zack run better and use up a lot less energy.


    So when he could run with the groups he saved a lot of energy and knew that he could run much more than he normally did in training, as Zack was used to running a lot more than 20 km every day at a faster pace than this he was running smoothly after 10 km.


    After the 30km marathon, Jake’s group was even further ahead in the lead, after so many kilometers of marathon some athletes from Jake’s group were already tired and thinking of leaving the group to slow down the running pace.


    But the best athletes could still take a few more km if not so many, seeing that Jake was still thinking he might have to break his world record, but he would win this marathon easily nheless.


    If he broke the world record a little too soon he wouldn’t have to worry about it for years toe and so Jake just wanted to know about winning this marathon.