Chapter 221 Bright Future 7
Race commentators had also realized that Jake was running at a high level, now Jake was no longer a stranger and was respected in the world of professional marathon athletes.
So this was the third time Jake had been running fast and commentators had already realized that this was Jake"s racing strategy, he won in Chicago and was second in New York and only lost because he had an injury after almost beat the race record.
"And we see that as speculated Jake is really trying to partic.i.p.ate in the Atlanta Olympics this year, this year he is 17 years old and everyone thought he was too young for that."
"I don"t think so, this is the third marathon he runs, he got great results in the first two and has been keeping a very strong pace for this one too."
"True, we can"t just see Jake as a young man, he is a pro and a favorite to get a place at the Olympics, but he forced a lot in the last New York marathon and ended the race with an injury, will he can you go well today?"
"From what I"ve seen he"s running at a much slower pace than he did in New York, he also ran a portion of the group race preserving endurance and is preserving well-controlled running energy."
"Now all that remains is whether he is doing this because he has learned to run more efficiently or because he has not yet fully recovered from his injury in the last marathon."
While Jake was running commentators were trying to figure out what was happening to him, after all, athletes usually make mistakes and learn from experience by competing in multiple marathons before improving.
But even with all the flaws, Jake had won since his first marathon, so he was a rarity that everyone liked to talk about, not to mention that Jake was only 17 now which made him even more interesting to commentators.
Jake kept running at the same pace as he avoided wasting energy by slowing down the climb, so after 30 km of the marathon, he was still fine as usual.
Jake could feel that he was clearly much better than in the first marathon that ran in Chicago and much better than when he ran in New York, now Jake was finally realizing the advantage of getting two stat points after winning in Chicago.
Jake had a great advantage for the other partic.i.p.ants while maintaining the same running pace as he went 35 km, only after that did Jake begin to feel his body heavy and tired.
Now with less than five km of the marathon left to win, Jake could feel that stopping for water at the support stations and other things he did differently this time helped a lot to make him run more comfortably this time.
"It looks like Jake is really in great shape in today"s race, about five km to the end of the marathon and he doesn"t look exhausted like other compet.i.tors at this point in the marathon."
"We can see that Jake seems to have found the right race pace and has run the same way as the other runners, he really seems to be our greatest hope for winning the gold medal at this year"s Olympics."
"It"s true, the fact that Jake is so young and so stable in his marathons makes him one of the best marathon athletes in the world today."
After driving the 38 km Jake slowed his pace a bit, after all, he had a huge lead for second place and was still afraid of what happened in the last marathon to repeat again.
After all, he was still not very confident that he was completely healed of the psychological problem he had and could still win even if he held on to the final part of the marathon.
After going through 41 km Jake finally relaxed and realized that he could win today"s marathon smoothly and get a seat at this year"s Olympics, he was even dreaming about the gold medal.
"It looks like we already have a winner for this marathon today, Jake is almost entering the last mile of the race and has a huge advantage of over 3 minutes for the other compet.i.tors."
"Second place finisher Bob Kempainen was ill at the last moments of the race, but he still stands firm in second and is well ahead of third place in the race."
"So we will have our main representative for this year"s marathon Olympics a 17-year-old Jake Smith is his name."
This time Jake had no problem at the end of the race and can easily win and secure a place for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Jake was relieved that it seemed his problem had been healed.
He finished the race in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 30 seconds earning $ 125,000, $ 100,000 to win and $ 25,000 for breaking the race record, so he was pleased with that, then Jake made a point of greeting Bob Kempainen that it would be the winner if it wasn"t for him to partic.i.p.ate this time.
After talking with some reporters and saying that he felt very good to be able to represent his young country in an Olympics, especially this one being in his country.
This was also the first time Jake had not eaten a stamina bar after finis.h.i.+ng a marathon, he felt less tired today than in his training, Jake had decided that this year would only train for the Olympics and not partic.i.p.ate in any marathon until the Olympics.
So Jake would have to wait a few years before he could compete in all major marathons in the world, Jake was a little disappointed to earn no reward statistic points after qualifying for the Olympics.
But that was normal, after all for the system this was just a qualifying compet.i.tion and the Olympics was the real challenge they would have to face, Jake just thought it would be nice to have a few more points in the Resistance statistic before the Olympics.
The same day Jake returned to Miami, he thought it was much better to rest at home than to stay in a pewter hotel, Jake told his mother when he got home that he had won the race and qualified for the Olympics.
He hoped that as last time she wouldn"t mind much, but Jake was wrong this time, Eva knew the Olympics very well and cheered for the United States in all compet.i.tions.
So she was very happy and congratulated Jake so much for being able to compete at the Olympics, Eva even said that it was for Jake to do everything possible to get a gold medal to bring home.
Jake had many awards and medals at home, but an Olympic gold medal would be completely different from what he had now, Jake agreed with his mother about it, which is why he wanted to get several gold medals after a few years.
Jake was seriously thinking that after this Olympics, in addition to trying to win the major marathons, he would start training for other sports as well, with his agility and Resistance now Jake thought the 5,000 and 10,000-meter race would be easy to beat here 4 years ago.
But the 1,500 and 800-meter races would be much more difficult, the smaller the distance from the races the greater the difficulty for Jake to try to win, he thought he would have to have at least 42 stats in agility to try to win and that wasn"t easy to achieve in 4 years only.
After winning 5 more marathons major Jake would get 5 more agility points and 5 Resistance points, it was a pity that Jake didn"t know if he could achieve more with the athletics world champions.h.i.+p and the Olympics.
Even though Jake knew he could not count on the agility points he would get from his normal training after all the system warned that Jake only got many points because his body was developing, but after this year he would not improve that easily.
That was why Jake was thinking about how he could improve his strength statistics, after all, he could not increase running in marathons and it would take several years to think of earning any points with basketball.
So Jake would have to see his Agility and Resistance is much higher than his strength statistics, and Jake knew from the system that he would need strength statistics to be able to improve accuracy on off-range and mid-range shots as well.
The other week Jake decided to rest his body and did no training other than the training of plays with the basketball team, after all, would soon be the third game of the Elite team in the national champions.h.i.+p.
Now that Jake had recovered from his psychological problem nothing could hinder his team from getting another national champions.h.i.+p trophy, then he would just have to think about university.
Jake called John and Alan during the week telling him that he had won and qualified for the Olympics, they were happy about it and their companies would be even happier. John was a little worried after what happened in New York and was happy to know that everything went well.
Jake also called Tiffany and Clara, but Tiffany was out of the country solving some problems with European stores and Clara said she wanted to have lunch with Jake to celebrate the good news.
When Jake saw Clara at the restaurant he was glad to see that she looked much healthier than before, she still looked a little pale and thin but was much more alive and happy than before.
She managed to recover faster after eating better and taking some vitamins, but especially after getting out of the depression that was due to the many problems, Clara realized that she had real friends by her side like Jake and Tiffany.
"How are you doing, Jake?"
"I"m fine, much better than before, things seem to be working out well now and I"m back to playing well and qualifying for the Olympics, plus my mom seems to be very happy and doesn"t have to work so much in the restaurant anymore."
"And you look so much better than before, Clara, I hope you"ll be happy and confident again as it was the first time I met you."
"Thank you, Jake, thanks to you and Tiffany that I am recovering so well, but I can only be happy again after I recover my actions from Robert"s hands."