At nine o'clock in the morning, Bai Yu and his group of eight arrived at their school. As soon as they entered the school gate, they did not go to the classrooms, but went straight to the activity room of the track and field club.
It's called the track and field club's activity room, but it's actually the activity room for all the sports clubs in their school. It's just that because the track and field club has the most members, the sign for this activity room only says "track and field club".
For Bai Yu and his friends, studying was no longer an option. Their main purpose in coming to the school was to train. Here, they not only had the school's coaches supervising them, but also like-minded classmates to train with.
When Bai Yu arrived at the activity room, there were already quite a few people inside. They were all dressed in sportswear and sneakers, doing stretching exercises.
"Brother Yu, I heard yesterday was your birthday. Happy birthday, Brother Yu."
"Brother Yu, let's change our clothes and go for a run. Let's see if I can catch up with you today."
Bai Yu and Wang Hai might not be considered prominent figures at their school, but they are definitely prominent figures in the track and field club. Since they entered the school, every year at the school sports meet, in the 200, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 3000, 5000, and 10000-meter running events, as long as Wang Hai and Bai Yu signed up, the champions of these events were invariably them.
Do you feel like there's one missing event among these track and field events? That's right, it's the most important 100 meters.
For Bai Yu and Wang Hai, their weakness is short-range bursts of speed. To be precise, this is Bai Yu's weakness, while Wang Hai's is because he has been training with Bai Yu since childhood, so his short-range bursts of speed are also insufficient.
Bai Yu and Wang Hai's best times in the 100 meters are 11.74 seconds and 11.13 seconds respectively. These times are not only not good in China, but they wouldn't even be in the top three in their own school.
But the 200 meters is a different story. Wang Hai is incredibly fast; he can run a time of 20.54 seconds. If it weren't for the fact that the largest competitions Wang Hai has participated in in the past were only at the provincial level, and that there was still a gap in professionalism compared to national and international competitions, Wang Hai's record might have even broken some domestic records.
Anyway, the current record holders for the 200m and 400m at the Hainan Provincial High School Games are both young people, Wang Hai, and the record for the 5000m is Bai Yu.
That's why they were able to be admitted to Ocean University of China as special talents, all for the sake of next year's Universiade.
After greeting the track and field club members in the activity room, Bai Yu and Wang Hai changed into their sportswear and then followed the crowd to the playground.
"Brother Yu, do you dare to have a match with me? If you win, I'll give you ten dollars. Are you in?"
Once on the track, the person who had previously said in the activity room that he wanted to run with Bai Yu gathered around again. This time, he not only wanted to run with Bai Yu, but he also added a stake to the win or loss, a full ten yuan.
Don't think that ten yuan is a small amount. You should know that Bai Yu and his classmates are all high school students, and their daily allowance is limited. Some of them don't even have any allowance at all.
These days, you get a 10 yuan reward for running a race. Is that a small amount?
The person who asked Bai Yu to run was named Qin Kai. He consistently ranked second in the long-distance running events at the school sports meet and was known as Qin Lao Er (Second Brother Qin).
He didn't ask Bai Yu to run with him because he was dissatisfied, but because he wanted to unleash his potential by running with Bai Yu. After all, he knew his own limitations very well.
Take the most recent provincial high school sports meet as an example. In the 3,000-meter event, Bai Yu came in first place, and Qin Kai came in eighth. In the 5,000-meter event, Bai Yu broke the provincial record, and Qin Kai did not make it to the finals.
The results clearly show a gap between Qin Kai and Bai Yu, and this gap is not small, but these are only recent results.
Back in their first year of high school, in the same 3,000-meter event, Qin Kai was outpaced by Bai Yu by a full 1.5 laps. Now, almost three years later, Qin Kai has narrowed that gap to half a lap, which is already a significant improvement.
It wasn't just Qin Kai; many members of their school's track and field club enjoyed competing against Bai Yu and Wang Hai, even going so far as to add prizes to the competition, all in an effort to force themselves to run faster.
Bai Yu and Wang Hai were also very happy about this, since they could earn money while exercising, so why not?
This time was no different. Bai Yu accepted Qin Kai's challenge, and the two stood together on the starting line. This time, they were competing in the 5,000-meter race.
Qin Kai's meaning was: I've already spent the money, so I definitely have to choose the project with the highest cost performance.
It's obvious that the 5000m is more cost-effective than the 3000m.
"Ahai, please record the time for me. I need to check it later."
Just before the start of the race, Bai Yu called out to Wang Hai, who obediently turned on the timer on his watch and waited for the student acting as referee to give the start order.
"Ready, run!"
With a command, Bai Yu and Qin Kai set off simultaneously. Qin Kai was in lane one and Bai Yu was in lane two. Neither of them started fast. Long-distance running is all about rhythm, about finding your own rhythm.
The track at Bai Yu's school is 400 meters per lap, so 5,000 meters would be 12 and a half laps. No one would be willing to use their full strength right from the start for a long-distance run of that length.
Someone who goes all out from the start is either someone who knows nothing and is a complete novice, or someone who can run at full speed the whole way.
Generally, the former is more common, while very few people can actually do the latter.
At least for now, neither Bai Yu nor Qin Kai can do it. However, Bai Yu has his own technique for long-distance running, which is to take the lead from the start and keep leading until the end.
Bai Yu's greatest advantage is his endurance. From childhood to adulthood, his only form of training has been running. He always runs until he can't go on anymore, and over time, he has developed excellent endurance in running.
Bai Yu immediately ran from lane two to lane one, blocking Qin Kai's path. At the same time, he was also slightly accelerating to widen the gap between him and Qin Kai.
Qin Kai, Bai Yu's old rival, had long been familiar with this tactic, but he didn't have any good solutions.
Qin Kai now has three choices: 1. Accelerate to overtake Bai Yu and take the lead; 2. Accelerate to follow behind Bai Yu and let Bai Yu block the wind resistance for him (although the wind resistance during running is almost negligible); 3. Follow his own pace and let Bai Yu take the lead.
None of these three options are the best. Choosing the first two would undoubtedly disrupt Qin Kai's own rhythm and put him in Bai Yu's rhythm, thus giving Bai Yu the initiative and making it easy for Qin Kai to be outmaneuvered.
Choosing the third option would be exactly what Bai Yu wanted. If Qin Kai didn't accelerate, the race would be a slow death, and Qin Kai could only watch helplessly as the distance between him and Bai Yu gradually increased.
If this were a formal match, Qin Kai might have risked disrupting his own rhythm to go head-to-head with Bai Yu, but there's no need for that now. He's just here to learn techniques from Bai Yu and adjust his own rhythm.
So after Bai Yu accelerated, Qin Kai also accelerated, but his acceleration was limited. He did not choose to overtake Bai Yu, nor did he choose to follow him closely.
Instead, he sped up his pace a little. In Qin Kai's view, as long as he could run faster than before, even if it was only by a second, then the ten yuan he spent would be worthwhile.
In the end, Qin Kai watched as Bai Yu gradually left him behind.
This time, Bai Yu specifically asked Wang Hai to time him so he could see where his limits were. He started sprinting on the eleventh lap.
On the eleventh lap, which means there are still 1,000 meters to go before reaching 5,000 meters, Bai Yu begins to sprint and accelerate.
At this moment, Qin Kai was more than a hundred meters away from Bai Yu. He was initially relieved that the distance was much smaller than in previous competitions, and that he had improved once again. Then he saw Bai Yu accelerate, accelerate...
At that moment, Qin Kai felt like he'd been screwed over. Who sprints with only 1,000 meters left in a 5,000-meter race? Damn it, if you sprint, I'll sprint too! I'll fight you to the death!
Under Bai Yu's influence, Qin Kai was also forced to start sprinting.
Unfortunately, people's physical strength and endurance are different. Bai Yu sprinted when there were still 1,000 meters left because he had a full understanding of his own physical strength and endurance, and he could run the remaining 1,000 meters.
Bai Yu completed the two and a half laps in just over two minutes, while Qin Kai collapsed on the last lap.
As Bai Yu crossed the finish line, Wang Hai, who was timing the time, also pressed the pause button on his watch.
"Someone go and help Qin Kai up. He probably has a stitch. Take him for a walk around the track."
When Bai Yu crossed the finish line, Qin Kai appeared in front of him. At this moment, the latter was walking with difficulty, and Bai Yu could tell at a glance what was wrong with Qin Kai.
The other members of the track and field club also knew this, but until Qin Kai himself gave up, no one else could go and help.
Besides Bai Yu, the winner of this competition and also the president of the track and field club, he can send someone over to help.
Bai Yu, who had just finished running 5,000 meters, did not stop either. He walked half a lap around the track before sitting down in the crowd.
...........
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com