The Big Race

The Big Race is a comic featured in Nickelodeon Magazine and Comic Crazy...Take 2!. In the comic, Squidward is completing in a race, but he doesn't expect SpongeBob and Patrick to show up.

Plot

Squidward is in a deep stretch when SpongeBob, who is eating a Coral Pop, sneaks up on him. Squidward tells him that he could've pulled something, which might have cost him the blue ribbon for the Bikini Bottom Marathon. Squidward has been training for months for the Marathon and says that he'll be famous if he wins. SpongeBob offers him a Coral Pop, but Squidward refuses; SpongeBob then gives a Coral Pop to Patrick.

The following day, the Marathon is about to begin. To Squidward's shock, SpongeBob and Patrick are also running for the blue ribbon. Squidward tells them that they have to win to get the ribbon, adding that "there can be only one winner" of the Marathon. SpongeBob and Patrick decide to give the ribbon to the other if either of them wins. The race begins, but SpongeBob and Patrick don't immediately realize that the race has begun. Once they realize everyone else is racing, they catch up to Squidward, who is leading the run. They ask him if the race has started, but he lies, claiming that it's a preliminary warm-up jog and not the real race and that, since they're in "such fine, limber shape," they should "just go back to the starting line and wait for the real race to start" before telling them "Have a Coral Pop while you wait!" SpongeBob and Patrick begin to run back to the starting line, but Patrick notices a square with "10", Squidward's number, which fell off. They run back to give it to him and do so just as Squidward is about to win. Squidward takes the square back, but unknowingly launches SpongeBob through the barrier reading "FINISH" and past the finish line, effectively giving SpongeBob the victory.

Later, Squidward is reading the newspaper when SpongeBob once again offers him a Coral Pop, having gotten a lifetime supply of Coral Pops for winning the race.