I didn't see the race live, but from the video I agree that he looked smoother than he has in several years.
But here's the reality: Webb was relevant (e.g., made an impact in races, was a factor to win/place high/run fast, etc.) on the national and international stage in 2004, 2005, 2006 (27:34 before going down with injury) and, of course, his career year of 2007. That's total of four years.
Webb has now been irrelevant (not a factor in races, not running ranking-type times, etc.) in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. That's six years.
In other words, Webb has now been irrelevant on the national and international stage 50% longer than he was ever relevant. That's just a fact. OK, if you give him credit for his junior and senior years in HS when we were all glued to his every race, then it's a push (six years of relevance and six years of irrelevance).
In 2010, when he got down to 3:36/3:53 then beat Rupp on the roads at 5K a couple of months later, I really thought he was on track to fully come back. But it wasn't to be.
I'm not going to pretend to know why he's run so poorly the last six years because I don't know what happened to him. I can observe that he was constantly hurt during the last six years and that no one can run up to their potential if they have a succession of injuries like that. I can also observe that he changed coaches and criss-crossed the country multiple times during those years, which are also things that aren't conducive to running up to one's potential when they happen that frequently. I will always wonder why, given the lack of success in the last six years, he never once attempted to reaffiliate with the Raczko, the guy who guided him to all the success he ever had. Just another unanswered question. It's easy to play armchair psychologist but that's even more rank speculation.
It was great to see him looking smooth again, but it was also painful at the same time. As exciting an athlete as Webb has been in the past, it's painful to see him still trying to reach for that level after six years of futility. It's never easy watching an athlete who stuck around too long and that's also true of Webb. Hey, if he just loves it and doesn't care about the results, I kinda get that. But I don't think that's it for him.
I think - and this is only speculation on my part - that Webb is clinging to the sport despite six years of relative futility because he doesn't yet know how to be anything other than Alan Webb the Runner. I hope I'm wrong about that.
I'd love nothing more than to see the guy run decent again. I'd be thrilled for him to run something the 3:35/3:52/13:20 type of range. I really would. I also think it might give him some badly needed peace, but again that's only speculation on my part.
Alan Webb at the top of his game was just about as good as it gets. Whatever else you want to say about him, he's been the most compelling figure in the sport for a very, very long time. Nothing attests to that more than the fact that so many still follow him after six years without so much as a national ranking, let alone an international ranking.
Here's what I do know: Once an athlete in any sport loses "it", it almost never comes back. If it does come back, it comes back within just a year or two. Once "it" is gone, "it" just doesn't come back after six years.