<h4>Chapter 355 Back for the Sophomore Year 9</h4>


    "More than 30 km of this marathon has passed and Jake’s group is still in the lead, but we can see that some athletes in this group are already thinking of leaving the group and are very tired, others are tired but they can take it for a few more kilometers."


    "I think the image of this group of Jake in this marathon shows how Jake is the best marathoner in the world today, in this group all are elite athletes and some are already very tired and will leave the group."


    "Others are elite athletes who have already reached several marathons in the top 10, Jerry Lawson who has already won a marathon 4 years ago, and Todd Williams who has had 2 Olympics."


    "These athletes are the best athletes in the world and any one of them can win a marathon if it’s on a good day or a lesser-known marathon, and these athletes are very tired too and can handle running at a pace for just a few km."


    "And in this group, there is Jake who is running smoothly with no sign of fatigue, looks like he’s running the 10km race and is still in the beginning, and Jake finishes the marathons like that without looking tired."


    Jake didn’t know that thementators were analyzing his tiredness to know if he could run faster, but he didn’t care that the others knew he could run faster.


    One day Jake would still try to run under 2 hours to break his world record again, by which time everyone would naturally know that running in less than 2 hours and 6 minutes was very easy for himself in training.


    After passing the 35km race almost all the athletes in his group were already behind and running at a slower pace, but Jerry Lawson and Todd Williams were still in his group.


    They were both very tired and could be left behind at any moment, but they were resisting waiting for Jake to slow his running pace, everyone who saw Jake’sst marathons would never expect to see that two athletes were running at the same pace as him afterward of 35 km.


    Jake had expected it and slowed his running pace just as he had in Berlin, both of them relieved when they saw that Jake had slowed down before they got too tired.


    Unlike Berlin Jake slowed his running pace even more because he did not intend to break his record if it was not necessary, they also slowed at the same pace as Jake and saw that they could continue running like this.


    Jake thought that if they could keep up with him to the final kilometers he would just elerate his race pace again and he was sure he could win, it was their merit to be able to race along with Jake in this marathon and he had to agree not to win with a great advantage. as in the other years.


    "That’s amazing, Jake has already slowed his running pace as he has done in every marathon he has run, in that 35 km he slowed down to run until the end of this Chicago marathon."


    "And even at this point Todd Williams and Jerry Lawson are still running in the same group as him, it’s a historic moment for this Chicago marathon where three American athletes are running for first ce and we can have the three American athletes in the top 3 at this marathon."


    "Yes, even though Jake had been running at a much higher than normal pace before, after that 35km he slowed down to less than the other athletes in this marathon are running, and that’s what the two American athletes were expecting."


    "With just over 7 km to finish this marathon, I think it’s quite possible that the three will continue to run together until the end."


    The two American athletes who were running with Jake didn’t think that way, they just wanted to keep running at that pace until the end, but they didn’t think that would be possible because the pace they ran for 35 km was so intense.


    So they didn’t even think about trying to beat Jake in this marathon that was still running smoothly even after 35km of the marathon, Jake noticed it too and kept running quietly.


    He would be happy if they and the other two American athletes were in the top three in this marathon, Jake was practically doing the work of setting the pace for the other two athletes by the end of the marathon in which he would win.


    While Jake was already getting ready to race the final kilometers of the marathon, Zack had not even reached halfway through the marathon, yet he had already been through the 15km for some time and was very happy with the pace he was running up to that time proof point.


    Unlike Jake, Zack not only had a group of people running with him throughout the race, but he also had to switch between groups while preupying with maintaining his running pace, naturally several times he lost his pace following someone in a group.


    But he could always recover in the next few kilometers, so even if he lost energy doing that he could run as scheduled, because of the training routine he had Zack had not tired running to the 15 km of this marathon because he was running at a slower pace than he trained.


    Also, Zack followed Jake’s tips for running in the best ces in this marathon and running with the groups helped him save energy, Jake and Coach Davis said that if he could run more than 30 km without being too tired, he was sure would end the marathon.


    Zack kept running at his pace up to 20 km, at this point in the marathon he knew that Jake should be close to finishing the marathon because almost two hours had passed, he hoped that Jake would win easily.


    After running the 40 km marathon Jake was already running alone in this marathon final, the two American athletes almost managed to follow Jake to the 40 km, but got tired before and decided to slow down even more to try to secure the second and third ce.


    The two athletes knew that without Jake they probably couldn’t make it into the top 5, so they didn’t want to keep giving Jake more pressure and letting him run smoothly.


    Even though Jake knew he would win this marathon and the other two athletes were tired, he was still nervous because he was not used to running with other athletes in the final km of any marathon.


    As soon as he was alone in the lead he could rx and keep up his pace to arrive at a time he had nned to finish this marathon, as he ran in a group for almost the entire marathon Jake was still full of energy in the final kilometers of the marathon.


    Near the 42 km, Jake was already calm that this marathon was almost won by him, so he wondered only if Todd Williams and Jerry Lawson were still in the top three and if Zack could keep up his running pace for this marathon.


    "We are nearing the end of this Chicago marathon, Jake has already crossed the 42 km and is in the final meters to win, it was a different marathon than we are used to with Jake participating."


    "He ran almost the entire marathon with a group of elite athletes who are still in the top 20 in this marathon and up to nearly 25 km with American athletes Todd Williams and Jerry Lawson."


    "The two are still vying for second ce with athlete Khalid Khannouchiing in fourth topete for those first ces with them."


    "And at that point, Jake Smith finishes the 1997 Chicago Marathon in the first ce, another marathon won for Jake in his short and brilliant marathon career, and his third straight victory in Chicago."


    "Jake finishes this marathon with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 58 seconds breaking the marathon record of himselfst year, 3 seconds close to the world record."


    "Jake’s great performance in less than a month after thest marathon in Berlin, I think after this marathon he will focus on college basketball so hopefully next year we can see Jake winning more marathons."


    "Now Todd Williams finished third in this marathon and Jerry Lawson came in second for Todd in the final meters, Khalid Khannouchi almost got third, but still finished fourth in that marathon."


    "It’s been a long time since we’ve seen American athletes getting in the top three ces of a major marathon like this, and Jake was the one who set the right pace for them to be in the top three."


    Jake was delighted to see that the other American athletes had been in the top three along with him who had won, he had been hoping for a while and this marathon was great for him after all.


    John who was following Jake was happy to see Jake win and was tense throughout the marathon seeing two athletespeting with Jake for first ce and only rxed when he saw Jake taking advantage.


    He knew well that this was Jake’sst marathon in 1997 and now Jake would focus only on the Tar Heels team and college basketball, this was a great year for Jake and also his sponsors such as John’spany.


    Jake and Eva’s friends were also nervous seeing the end of this marathon that was different than in the other years and were happy to see that Jake had won in the end like every year.


    Jake received $ 125,000 in prize money for winning and breaking the Chicago Marathon record of his own after celebrating and snapping a picture with the other two American athletes who took second and third ce.