Chapter 356 Back for the Sophomore Year 10

However unlike the other marathons, Jake did not leave soon after receiving the prize for the hotel, he asked John who had saved him a chair he had brought and just sat in a place he asked to stay for the marathon organization.

The marathon organization naturally liked Jake to stay longer and arranged a place for him near the finish line and safely so that no accidents would happen.

Jake was naturally waiting for his friend Zack to finish his marathon, he had to support his friend and because he also trained along with Zack and was almost a coach for him, Jake knew that Zack would complete this marathon, which he was hoping for was that Zack could finish before 2 hours as he intended.

So Jake just intended to sit around waiting for Zack, he wasn't even too tired and after having a natural drink from Tiffany's company he was relaxed, then he would have to go back to university and couldn't stay with Zack for the next few days.

But they couldn't do what they wanted, unlike the other normal marathon athletes. Jake was very famous and beloved by the public, he played in college basketball that was the goal of thousands of young people and still participated in movies besides winning many marathons and win gold medals representing the United States.

So after seeing the fans asking him for an autograph, Jake got up and went to where the people who were watching the marathon were and spent several minutes signing autographs for anyone to ask him, luckily the smartphones had not been invented otherwise Jake would have to spend a lot more time taking pictures with others.

Some fans were still taking pictures of him with Matthew's company digital camera and Jake found it interesting that he was seeing so many people using Matthew's new and old digital camera proving how he had changed the time he knew and his success from Matthew's company.

Zack kept on running very hard and after 30 km he started to get more relaxed because he wasn't very tired yet and if what Jake and Coach Davis said was true he would surely have the energy to finish this marathon.

A few km back he had already heard that Jake had won by listening to the fans talking about it, Zack was very happy to hear that Jake had won another marathon and it gave him even more energy.

Zack knew better than anyone how Jake trained hard to run these marathons and always win beyond his basketball team training, so Zack always thought Jake deserved everything he had achieved and should achieve much more.

So Zack had more confidence to achieve his personal goal because he also trained every day like Jake and still had Jake's help in his training, so he didn't think he was missing anything compared to other amateur athletes running in up to 3 hours all marathons.

Even more, than in this marathon, he was not tired after the 30 km and was managing to maintain a medium pace similar to what he had agreed with Jake before this marathon, Zack could still find groups to run with himself at this point of the marathon.

After the 40 km marathon, less than 4 hours had passed, it was still 11 minutes to the 4 hours of marathon and Zack was already feeling very tired, even training every day for over a year Zack still could not compare to the other amateur athletes who had been running for several years.

Plus it was the first time Zack had tried to run a full marathon before 4 hours, so even though running at a pace below training he felt very tired.

But Zack knew what it was like to feel this tiredness several times that he got so tired in training, so Zack knew he could finish this marathon easily even though he was tired.

But Zack's goal a little over 2 km away was not just to complete the marathon but to finish this Chicago marathon before 4 hours, so he couldn't just keep running like this and had to increase his running pace a bit finals.

He had already arranged this with Jake and Coach Davis who if he felt he could run faster over the last few kilometers he could try, after reaching 42 km Zack was feeling much more tired from having increased his pace.

Even though he was feeling happy because it was still a long time before 4 hours and he was about to finish this marathon, Zack felt proud and thought it was worth the many tiring workouts he did waking up very early every day.

It was just the first marathon he participated in and was soon the big marathon in Chicago and he was finishing before 4 hours, was certainly a source of pride for any amateur athlete.

Zack gained even more energy when he saw Jake getting up to wait for him, it was Jake who had encouraged him to participate in this marathon, training with him and teaching him various things, now Jake brought him into this marathon and was even waiting for himself Jake was very busy.

Zack managed to finish this marathon before 4 hours and everyone finally knew who Jake was waiting for nearly 2 hours in this marathon, after Zack arrived he was exhausted and couldn't even breathe properly and Jake gave his friend a break before talking to him.

"Congratulations Zack, I'm very happy to see that you managed to finish your first marathon and still did what you wanted and finished this Chicago marathon in less than 4 hours."

"Thanks, Jake, if I got it it was thanks to you, I'm very happy and never expected to feel such a thrill after completing a marathon."

"I know how it is, I've always loved running too, you are feeling it because you did something you wanted and worked hard to achieve that goal, that sense of accomplishment is proof that you love running too."

"Yes, I will continue training and I will run in other marathons, I hope we will continue training after that, and congratulations on winning this marathon, you deserve it."

After Zack had finished the marathon Jake had nothing else to do at this place and left after saying goodbye to everyone, he had already spoken to John a few hours earlier and John left because he had nothing else to do after Jake finished the marathon.

Before leaving John said he had taken care of Jake's and Zack's return tickets as well, John taking care of Zack was just a favor of his company to Jake and Jake insisted that Zack wear the same uniform he always wore with corporate brands who sponsored him.

After this marathon, Jake rested for just a few hours at the hotel before flying to college and letting Zack recover from this Chicago marathon, now less than a month before the Tar Heels team's first game in the new college basketball season.

The players of the team had already practically recovered their perfect form and were ready to play the first game, this was normal because even though the players were resting and celebrating the great season they had, they did not neglect their fitness so much because they knew who had to play in November.

Unlike last year when new players were preparing to play as starters, this season the players would be the same as last season, so their rapport was very good even before the season started.

Everyone on the team already knew that Jake was a great player and recognized his talent and that Jake was a better player than they currently, besides playing in the position of PG Jake was the team leader of course.

Even though Jake didn't want to be the team captain and let Coach Guthridge decide who he was, he was just his sophomore year as a team player and would soon leave college so there was no point in him being the team captain this season.

In addition, Jake had to admit that he was unable to be a good team captain, all he could do to help the team as captain he could do just by playing normally and without having to be the captain.

He would still be the team leader and still strive for the team to be united and well into the games, after all, Jake and the whole Tar Heels team hoped they could be the champions this season as well.

The team training went on well and Jake continued training as he had arranged with Coach Davis every day, two days after the marathon Zack had returned very happy and proud of what he had achieved and all of Jake's roommates congratulated Zack as well.

Even his brother Brett showed up to say he was proud of Zack and that made him very thrilled, after that as he had promised Zack continued training with Jake every day, Zack's goal was to finish the next marathon before 3 hours.

So after several weeks of training came the day of Jake's first game this basketball season, all of the Tar Heels players were very excited and nervous about this first game, especially when they remembered that the Tar Heels team lost their first game of the last season.

So they didn't know if they should expect to win this game as they should do or just lose to maintain good luck, of course, this was a team joke because no one would lose just because of superstition and even if they wanted Jake and Coach Guthridge they wouldn't accept.