Chapter 301 - 302: Admiration
At her words, everyone straightened up, a hint of inquiry in their eyes.
In the end, it was Shawn Styles who spoke first. "Everyone, go get some rest for now."
He believed that if Chloe Sinclair was saying this, the afternoon would be anything but easy.
But no one could have imagined just how difficult it would be.
After spending an hour reviewing the files of the remaining athletes, Chloe Sinclair went to the sports team’s dining hall for a meal.
The food at the sports team’s facility was excellent—heavy on meat, light on vegetables.
Chloe Sinclair happened to be hungry, so she asked the server to give her an extra-large portion.
She found a quiet spot to finish her meal, then went to the training field to meditate.
At two in the afternoon, all the athletes were ready and waiting.
Chloe Sinclair’s eyes suddenly snapped open. She rose from the ground, and her first words were, "Long-distance runners, prepare for a 1600-meter test in five minutes."
Five minutes later, however, the athletes were surprised to find Chloe Sinclair standing on the track with them.
The athletes were confused, but the race was about to begin, so no one said a word.
Coach Young raised a stopwatch and pressed the button.
In the next instant, everyone shot forward like unleashed arrows.
Unlike amateurs, these professional athletes went all out from the very start.
In less than five seconds, a clear order had been established.
To everyone’s astonishment, the person leading the pack was Chloe Sinclair.
Chloe Sinclair was only wearing a pair of ordinary sneakers and a thin cotton jacket, but despite the lack of professional gear, she maintained a solid lead.
As they completed the first lap, Coach Young grabbed a megaphone and yelled, "What’s wrong with you all? You can’t even keep up with a young girl! She’s already dozens of meters ahead of you! Have you no shame?"
Spurred on by his words, the exhausted athletes suddenly picked up their pace. But just as they thought they were about to catch up to Chloe Sinclair, they were stunned to see her accelerate even more!
She was running faster and more powerfully than before.
Shawn Styles, on the other hand, wasn’t surprised at all. He took a deep breath and forced himself to keep pace behind Chloe Sinclair.
In the final four hundred meters, Chloe Sinclair kept accelerating.
Everyone was utterly exhausted, feeling even more drained than they had after the sixteen-kilometer run that morning.
Chloe Sinclair glanced back at Shawn Styles, her voice slightly hoarse. "Don’t break your form. Increase your cadence, lengthen your stride."
Shawn Styles nodded and instinctively matched his pace to hers.
When he crossed the finish line, he was only a few meters behind Chloe Sinclair.
After finishing the race, Shawn Styles’s throat burned. He draped himself over the railing, feeling wretched.
The other runners who had finished weren’t faring any better. Some immediately ran off to throw up.
Chloe Sinclair, however, looked completely unfazed. She glanced at the stopwatch in Coach Young’s hand, a gratified smile spreading across her face.
She turned to face the others, who were staggering about or being held up by their teammates, and said, "Congratulations."
They looked up in confusion. The young woman’s eyes were bright and captivating, her red lips slightly parted. Her beautiful, jet-black eyes shone like stars in the night sky.
"Congratulations," she said. "You’ve broken your own limits."
Then, Chloe Sinclair began to read out each runner’s time.
As they heard their times, their faces lit up with ecstatic joy.
They had actually broken through their limits!
Breaking a personal limit is an incredibly difficult feat for a professional athlete.
Many of the athletes present could have trained for another year, or even two, and might never have achieved such a breakthrough.
But now, in a single test run, they had shattered their personal bests.
Despite their physical misery, in that moment, every face was filled with unmistakable joy. Some were even moved to tears.
Many of them had been competing in tryouts since they were children, dedicating their entire youth to the track.
For more than a decade, this track had held their youth and their sweat. Their passion was real, but so was the grueling effort.
Chloe Sinclair found herself moved by the emotions of these athletes, some of whom were only a few years older than her, and some even younger.
She turned away and took a deep breath.