Chapter 2: Sniper

Bret decided to try the same events again. He really hadn't gained any experience that made a difference. The first event, once again, was the twenty mile run. With all the runners knowing Bret had won the event two years before, all were concerned about him. With his training base almost double what it had been, Bret decided to take it out fast from the start. At the ten mile mark Bret and two others were running at a near world record pace. Bret was running easily, but one of the others was already beginning to struggle. Bret put in a surge which crushed the struggling runner, and opened up a gap on the other.

At fifteen miles Bret was about four hundred yards ahead of second place, and he just put it into cruise control. At the finish, Bret was three minutes ahead of second place and only three minutes off the world record record Marathon pace. The networks were ecstatic that their spokesperson was back and doing well. This year Andy was there to cheer Bret on. This brought a smile to both of their faces.

Bob, because of running with Bret, changed from the five mile to the twelve-point-five mile run. Bob's event was the second day. Starting out at a reasonable pace Bob was in seventh place at the ten mile mark, with plenty of energy left. At that point, he upped his pace to his steeplechase pace. Now the steeplechase is a sprint, compared to the twelve-point-five mile run. When Bob increased his pace it was unfair. He began to catch and pass runners, like a lead runner passing lapped runners on the track. At the finish he had almost three hundred meters on the second place runner. So both Bret and Bob were at one point, after the first event.

Now if Bret had been the Martial Arts Drill Instructor, he would have not been eligible to compete in the martial arts category. But, as only a martial arts instructor, he could. The results this time were faster than the previous attempt, because he didn't have the two early matches, however the results were the same: two events, two points.

Because of the exercising he'd done with Bret, Bob had switched one of his events from the previous try, to pull-ups. Now Bob was not a muscular man. His build was more like a distance runner. Bob was five-eight and weighed one-forty, normally. After four months working out with Bret, he was down to one-twenty-five with almost zero percent body fat. The other contestants in the pull-ups laughed at Bob when he showed up. Most of them were not big body builder types. They were more like a gymnast in build. You reach a point of diminishing returns, quickly, with more muscle weight. Contestants realize that to score high in pull-ups is not easy, so there were only forty-seven contestants.

The judges were adamant in stating, before anyone started, that a contestant had to come all the way to the bottom before starting a new repetition. Many of the contestants found this disconcerting. Contestants were competing five at a time. A contestant continued, until he could not pull-up again, or until he rested more than fifteen seconds between repetitions. Two judges watched form, and two counted. If either of the form judges called an excess of fifteen second rest the pull was over. Bob was in the sixth group of five pulling. During the first five groups every contestant lost at least one pull-up for not fully extending and some lost several. When Bob's group was ready to begin the top number of pull-ups was eighty-seven. Bob began at a nice steady pace being sure to not rest more than the time to get a breath. By the time he reached seventy-five pull-ups he felt strong. After a quick wipe off of his hands taking at most ten seconds, he continued. When he completed a hundred an three repetitions, he almost rested too long, but continued just as the judge opened his mouth. Number one-seventeen proved to be the last pull-up he could complete. Once again, the dedicated training with Bret had paid off. One guy in the last group gave Bob a scare but he rested a little too long after his hundred and ninth repetition. So Bob, as did Bret, was two points after two events.

As in the previous year, they were in the same next two events. The steeple chase was contested first. Unlike before Bret started the race running stride for stride with Bob. The way the two of them were running relaxed and smiling you would think they were just on a training run. As the laps fell away they ran easy and relaxed. It was almost like Bret was Bob's shadow. There was not much difference in their strides.