Alan Webb

Original article by Tim Layden for Sports Illustrated

Written before Webb ran 1.43 for 800 m

The Fast and the Furious

When it comes to U.S. runner Alan Webb, there has always been a plan. The plan has been detoured, as plans will be, but Team Webb -- primarily Alan and longtime coach Scott Raczko, but also agent Ray Flynn -- have always had their eyes on more distant goals than the people who evaluate them from afar (media, bloggers, anonymous web posters).

Last Friday, Webb won a Golden League 1,500 meters in Paris, outlasting Mehdi Baala and running 3:30.54, the fourth-fastest 1,500 ever run by an American and the fastest ever by a native-born U.S. runner (only Bernard Lagat and Sydney Maree have run faster; Lagat's two-year-old U.S. mark is 3:29.30). Webb's next European outing (in advance of the late August world championships in Japan) will be a mile on July 21 in Brasschaaf, Belgium, where Webb can make a serious run at Steve Scott's revered U.S. record of 3:47.69.

But right now, I'm thinking back six years, to the spring and summer of 2001, when Webb first exploded. But I'm not thinking about the epic afternoon in Eugene, Ore. when he ran 3:53.43 to break Jim Ryun's national high school mile record at the Prefontaine Classic (although it remains one of the most exciting athletic moments I have ever witnessed; and I've witnessed a bunch).

I'm also not thinking about the early evening a few weeks later when Webb was warming down next to the Hayward Field track, also in Eugene, and veteran U.S. sprinter Jon Drummond said to me, theatrically, "Alan Webb! The savior of track and field!'' The theory being that if the United States could only produce another great miler -- a Ryun, a Marty Liquori -- then track and field would return to its place among the great sports on the American landscape.

(That theory was spectacularly flawed, but Drummond's exhortation accurately captures the hype surrounding Webb at the time. Heck, I had personally been chasing him around for more than a year, waiting for him to run Sub-Four, just as I had with Gabe Jennings four years earlier).

The day I'm thinking about was before the Pre mile and before Webb failed to make the U.S. team for the 2001 world championships. I was at South Lakes High School in Reston Va., where Webb was a senior. I had watched Webb run a blistering set of 400s and then talked with him.

Late that afternoon, I walked with Raczko to this car. We talked about some other young runners in the U.S., and I mentioned some heavy workouts that one of them had been doing. Raczko shook his head. It seemed like this particular runner -- who I won't name because he's doing just fine now and there's no reason to embarrass him or his high school coach and besides, Raczko and I were just BS-ing -- might be doing a lot of junk miles. "Where is the value in that?'' Raczko asked. "How is that going to help him in the future?''

Here is what I took from that conversation: Raczko was coaching a very good high school track team with one very special runner. The time was now; but for Raczko (and Webb), the time was also the next decade.

Webb's subsequent story is well-known in the track world: He went to Michigan and ran reasonably well, but left after a year, turned professional and rejoined Raczko. (He voices no negatives toward Michigan, and even said after winning the U.S. 1,500 title in June, "I bleed maize and blue.''). He dominated the 1,500 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2004, ran his mile PR of 3:48.92 in '05 (fourth-fastest U.S. runner in history).

A year ago he opened his outdoor season by defeating Dathan Ritzenhein in a 10,000 meters at Stanford in 27:34.72. Only eight U.S. men have run faster, and none of them were 3:48 milers, or even close. It demonstrated a startling range, but also led to questions about Webb's best event. Should he stick with the mile, where he seemed to lack tactical speed for championship races? Should he move up to the 5,000, where he could red-line from start to finish at a fast pace?

It didn't help that Webb struggled for the rest of '06, never getting under four minutes (or its 1,500-meter equivalent). He was anemic. He was hurt. And he was becoming forgotten.

Yet, it turns out there was a plan. Not for the anemia and the injuries. But for the long term. Webb has returned to the mile and 1,500, where he always wanted to be and better than ever at age 24. "I'm a miler,'' Webb told me in the spring. "There's lots of time to move up when I'm older.''

Raczko says, "Everything has been part of a master plan. Of course we've had to re-focus and re-adjust along the way, like everyone does, but there has always been a plan. [Years] 2005 and 2006 were all about training for 2007 and 2008. The last couple of years, we were trying to build up the strength he needs to win championship medals in the 1,500.''

(Training 101: This part will be like See Spot Run for running nuts out there. But a middle-distance runner benefits from building a potent aerobic base to which he adds speed training. In 2005 and 2006, while second-guessers were suggesting that Webb's talent at longer distances compelled a competitive move upward, Webb and Raczko were, in fact, just building a base from which to jump forward in the championship and Olympic years).

Through much of '05 and '06, in addition to high volume training on land, Webb also did extensive water running (in a buoyant vest). "That enabled him to keep the life in his body, while still getting an strong aerobic base,'' says Raczko. "Alan built up a very high level of aerobic strength.''

Webb is an emotional guy. Always has been. His double fist-pumping homestretch run at the national championships last month was no surprise to people who have known him through the years. It was the culmination of the hard training, and also the whispered implications that he was finished as a miler. "I've always been a speed guy,'' says Webb. "All of sudden people were talking about me like I didn't have any more speed.''

Moreover, because of his early success, Webb has not had the opportunity develop quietly. His every race is monitored and dissected by the tracknuts -- god love 'em -- of the world.

As for speed, though, Raczko ran Webb consistently in 4x400-meter relays in high school and four days before his Paris 1,500-meter breakthrough, he ran a 1:45.8 PR in the 800. There's a sense that he can go much faster than that, as well. Again, serious range. And it's clear that his speed in race sharp at this point.

Whether Webb breaks Scott's mile record in Belgium or not, the true test of his -- and Raczko's -- plan will come a month later in Japan, when Webb tries to become the first U.S. runner to medal in an Olympic or world championship 1,500 meters since Jim Spivey took a bronze at the '87 Worlds. (The last Olympic 1,500 medal was Ryun's sliver behind Kip Keino in '68 at Mexico City).

Webb -- and every other world-class miler on the planet -- understands that championship 1,500s are dicey affairs. "It's a weird one,'' says Webb. "It's sort of the tweener race. You don't want to lead, but you don't want to go slow, either.''

At this point, it looks like Webb and Raczko have done the requisite work to maximize Webb's talent. He appears to be strong enough to weather almost any pace, and yet now sharp enough cover late moves and outkick people. That was the plan all along.

And it's not over. Raczko says, "Alan is already talking to me about his plans for 2009, 2010, 2012, even 2013."