The first week of school wasn't so bad because there weren't too many assignments to keep up with yet but Claire was tired from being out and about all day every day. She was used to having more downtime than this even with Ethan around.
Come Sunday when it was time to run her marathon she stuck to the pacing she had been training for but was so exhausted she thought she might die around mile sixteen. With ten miles to go, she had no idea how she was supposed to make it at all, let alone beat her previous time in any meaningful way.
Alex caught on to her weariness and began encouraging her. He didn't have a problem with talking as he ran because this sort of exercise was light to him.
"You're more than halfway there already! You can do it. You've worked too hard to fail now so push yourself a little harder. You can crash until you have to go to school tomorrow as soon as we get home."
