Webb is PISSED!

I'm sure if he wasn't enjoying the sport he wouldn't do it, he seems like that kind of character. He's hungry for more, his interview showed that, I don't think it's even a question.

0/10

So slamming your bag onto the table is a tantrum? OK. I'm eagerly awaiting the brojo's assessment. In my opinion, it's pretty lame to take a swing at Webb on the homepage, then say "we'll back this up later." I bet a lot of readers won't read through an article to get their explanation, they'll just remember that Webb threw a tantrum. Irresponsible if you ask me.

Listen, Webb. It's only Feb and you just had the flu. It's a bummer but you'll be ready for the next race. I had the flu last year and it messed me up too, so don't worry. 4 is okay. You're ready.

Maybe marriage doesn't agree with him.

malmo wrote:

Wake up, son. He's still buzzing from his race and a reporter sticks a microphone in his face and he rather graciously answers in a stream of consciousnesses manner.

There's no there, there. Quit trying to microanalyse him. One, you aren't qualified to, no one is ever going to stick a microphone in your face after you run, and secondly, worry about yourself. Webb has his shit together -- you don't. He understood that he thought that he was going to be able to fake it through this race (because that's what happens sometimes), but it didn't materialize. No big deal.

Personally I much rather give a race a shot than to be stuck in Beaverton training and staring at the walls.

His actions - answering simple questions with an unorganized and highly self-critical "stream of consciousness" - are not what one expects of a professional with his "shit together". This goes for any profession. I don't effing care if he didn't perform up to his own expectations (3:55 !?) or the various reasons why he's not in better shape. The results are what they are. As a fan I'm only interested in what's next given where he's at now.

The Waterboy wrote:

pres mustache wrote:

holy crap i thought he was about to cry.

what a whiny baby.

Oh no, and Geb surely must be such a baby for crying at the end of the NYC Marathon right?

HUGE difference.

Geb's ENTIRE training was organized around that one race. One race. And he's at the end of his career. It's not like he can just start over. Geb's breakdown was about passion.

Webb sits there for 9 minutes creating excuses. Seriously. 9 minutes. It's the same kind of immaturity, and, to be frank, lack of logic, which made him so unlikeable in "Sub-4". I want to root for the guy, I really do. I'm pulling for him to not let this one bad race get him down. But 9 minutes of that nonsense. Hard to handle.

"As a fan" you're interested in "what's next given where he's at now," but you turn up your nose when he gives a longer, more honest interview than 99% of professional athletes ever do?Why don't you do yourself a favor and stick to official press-release boilerplate?

Alan was grateful to have been given the chance to compete at the 2011 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on February 5th at the Reggie Lewis Center on the campus of Roxbury Community College in Boston, Massachusetts. He looks forward to his next competition, the 2011 Flotrack Husky Classic, to be held February 11-12 at the University of Washington's Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle.

Does that meet your standards of professionalism? Does it get you excited about Alan again?

(That's not a real press release. He's probably not racing next weekend. But you get the point.)

If I were Webb's coach I would force him to run in large packs with elbows and trash talk. In workouts. Just get him used to running with spikes flying and hard competition.

He seems to be uncomfortable in crowds

So my assessment is that he shouldn't be too hard on himself. He has never run well early in the year and when he puts pressure on himself he doesn't seem to do well.

On another note if you are an elite runner don't you think you should get a flu shot. They are like 20 bucks at walgreens. I have always gotten one because 2-4 weeks of training being screwed up over getting the flu seems stupid to me.

How about everyone on this board goes and runs a 4 minute mile indoors in a bad race before they start calling Webb a whinny ass b*tch? It's unlikely any of you would match such a performance so why don't you just shut up. Why does everyone always critique? What do you achieve by saying these things? It's probably people like you that cause Webb to be frustarated and angry because you push him too hard.

So go achieve something worthwhile and then come back and whine about Webb. If you have already achieved something that's actually good, great. If your the other 99.9% on this board, Stop.

He shouldn't have gone to Boston

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

At this point, though, it would be hard to bet on him being in the top three at trials.

My take on it wrote:

You're kidding, right? He had one bad race, after having a hamstring issue and the flu. Nationals is in June, it's February. I would be immensely surprised if he does not make the team.

He is in his late 20s and running slower than he did as a high school student. I don't care if he had a "hamstring issue" (obviously not a serious injury, since he lined up for an elite mile with this "issue"). This is bad.

I'm working on maintaining a high gpa for my bio degree. I'm pretty sure that's more worthwhile than a 4 min mile.

So he had a bad race, big deal. He's obviously disappointed and needs to move on. That's when as a coach you grab him and say don't worry about it, keep plugging away and quit putting so much pressure on yourself. He's obviously got a confidence problem right now that he put so much emphasis on a meaningless race. I think in the end having Salazar coaching him is going to put too much pressure on him. I think he should move to Jerry's group (if possible) or find someone who can coach him as a post collegiate. He looks pretty fit and he's obviously talented. I also think he should consider moving up to the 5k and use his speed there.

how about this:

Webb finishes out 2011-2012 as a 1500/5000 meter guy. Get the olympic bugaboo out of his life.

Then he becomes the best american road racer. He could dominate.

This could work because the guy clearly would rather be a time trialer than a Uceny-type runner who loves to mix it up. road races are far lower pressure and more of time trials.

T-man wrote:

So slamming your bag onto the table is a tantrum? OK. I'm eagerly awaiting the brojo's assessment. In my opinion, it's pretty lame to take a swing at Webb on the homepage, then say "we'll back this up later." I bet a lot of readers won't read through an article to get their explanation, they'll just remember that Webb threw a tantrum. Irresponsible if you ask me.

The brojo's have always been biased against Webb and favour Ritz way above and beyond Webb. This has been evident in how they pump Ritz taking a training run but Webb runs 3:55 and can barely get a link on the front page. If I had to guess, Webb is a registered Democrat and the Brajo's aren't going to support "one of them."

how about this:

alan focuses on the 1500 for 2011/2012 like he obviously is gonna do.

then he becomes a 1500/5k till 2016 and beyond if he's gonna keep competing beyond 2016.

he could run like 3:28 in 2012, and then be a 3:30/12:50 type guy after that, and double in championships.

whatever he does, i just can't wait for him to start racing a lot. i wanna see him bust out great 800s, 1000s, 1500s, miles, 3k's, 2 miles, 5k's starting this summer. he could rewrite the usa record books from the 1500 up to at least 5k. if he trained for it he could hit sub 27 too. this summer he just needs to start getting into every race he can from 800 to 5k. get some racing experience after not doing anything the past 3 years.

Webb will eventually run sub-2 in the marathon.

He seems to put too much pressure on himself and takes on other people's expectations too seriously. That's evident in the only "entering a race I feel I have a shot at winning" attitude. Sometimes you go into a race to assess your fitness and reaction to a race scenario. Sometimes you do it for the "good of the sport" (to put butts in the stands) even if you don't have a decent shot at winning.

It contrasts with Leo's post race interview where he seems to just chalk it up to not being in shape. And it looks like the main reason he was there was because he was invited not so much he thought he could win the race.

Overall Alan did good for the sport. He made it worthwhile to "tune into" letsrun this weekend and generated interest. Best of luck to the Webbmaster.