He could only keep his eyes and mind fixed on his horses and on the goal.
The multitude clapped, roared, shouted encouragement to their party, hissed and whistled when they were disappointed--venting their utmost indignation on Marcus as he came past behind the others; but he either heard them not or would not hear.

Dada's heart beat so wildly that she thought it would burst.

She could not sit still; she started to her feet and then flung herself back on her cushions, shouting some spurring words to Marcus in the flash of time when he might perhaps hear them.
When he had passed, her head fell and she said sadly enough: "Poor fellow!--We have bought our wreaths for nothing after all, Demetrius!" But Demetrius shook his head and smiled.
"Nay," he said, "the boy has iron sinews in that slight body.

Look how he holds the horses in! He is saving their strength till they need it.
Seven times, child, seven times he has to go round this great circus and past the 'nyssa'.

You will see, he will catch up what he has lost, yet.
Hippias, you see, is holding in his horses, too; it is his way of giving himself airs at starting.