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New
York Times' Recap of Race Saturday, January 20th, 2001 - Alan Webb, a senior at South Lakes High in Reston,VA, became the first highschooler to run a sub-four minute mile since 1967 when he ran 3:59.86 today at the New Balance Mile at the Armory Track in New York City. Webb, a last-minute addition to the field, finished third in the race, which was one by Kenyan Leonard Mucheru, the fourth place finisher in last year's IAAF World Cross Country Championships 4-K event, in 3:57.7. Arlington, VA's Matt Holthaus was second in 3:59.7, and LetsRun.com had a small role in the historic day as LetsRun.com correspondent Scott Anderson (of on-line journal fame) helped pushed Webb to the sub-four before being edged out by Webb at the end and finishing fourth in 4:0016. Anderson reported from cell-phone in New York that Muchera and Webb broke away from the field at the gun. Webb followed Muchera through 400 and 800 meters in 59 and 1:59, before Muchera pulled away. Anderson and Holthaus led the chase pack which was at least a second behind Webb for the early stages of the race. For laps five, six and seven (800-1400 meters), Webb ran mostly in no-man's land before Anderson and Holthaus began to gain on him in the final lap. Anderson said he pulled up on Webb with 150 meters to go and thought for sure Webb was going to fade, but "was surprised with how he fought back and held me off." Holthaus managed to pass both Anderson and Webb on the inside with 50 meters to go to get second but Webb had enough in reserve to sneak under the four-minute barrier and hold off Anderson in the process. Anderson reported that initially after the race there was a moment of uncertainty as to what Webb's official time was, but once it was announced, the crowd went ballistic and Webb eventually managed a "victory" lap before being quickly whisked off to a press conference. Anderson added that the meet was very well promoted and the crowd was informed with 400 meters to go that Webb was definitely on pace to break the highschool indoor mile record of 4:02.7, Anderson, for his part, was pleased with his performance as he's been training alone with very little speedwork while in Chicago preparing to move to Flagstaff, Az with LetsRun.com co-founder Weldon Johnson. "I could have run away with the race by 2-3 seconds, but I purposely held back because I was wearing the LetsRun.com (racing) singlet and I wanted to make sure that it was perfectly positioned for the finish line photo of Webb crossing the finish-line," dead-panned Anderson after the race. "I'm sure it will be in the New York Times and papers across the country," added Anderson before asking for $20 for giving the site some free publicity (Editor's note: Anderon's photo did indeed appear in the NYTimes but unfortunately the LetsRun.com logo was blocked. Dyestat.com does have a nice photo of Anderson in the race, however). Site co-founders Robert and Weldon Johnson politely declined Anderson's request by citing the fact that the web-site has yet to receive a single penny in revenue and telling Anderson that he had already been grossly overpaid today since he received $500 for coming in fourth when fourth place was schedule to receive $0. Anderson only got paid because Webb turned down the third-place money to maintain his collegiate eligibility. The race was only Webb's second of the indoor season. He ran a 9:06 3200 meters last weekend and also participated in the 4 x 800 relay. -Letsrun.com Staff Discuss the race in our forum.
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