Let's talk about Alan Webb's incredible 80 minute triple 10 days before his 3:53. 4:06(2:14/1:52)/49/1:49

Wow. Class of his own.

Interesting his teammate (a Junior) ran 4:14/49/1:55 for 2nd in each race. Did this guy do anything after? Richard Smith.

This is letsrun, not let'srun.

So I think you meant "lets talk about."

This was my freshman year of high school. I ran at a school about 90 minutes south of Webb’s and remember us hearing about this district meet at practice. It floored us. The splits on the 1600 especially.

https://va.milesplit.com/meets/2434/results/4391/raw#.XsyZYeRq2Ec

His teammate, Richard Smith, got second in each of those races:

49/1:55/4:14

Brofessor wrote:

Wow. Class of his own.

Interesting his teammate (a Junior) ran 4:14/49/1:55 for 2nd in each race. Did this guy do anything after? Richard Smith.

From the looks of those splits from the 1600, I'm guessing both were in pretty good shape and their coach just wanted them to get good work in. Maybe the plan was to push the second half because even running 4:14 off a 2:14 is a pretty good negative split.

Either way, not sure what the kid did later in his career.

Brofessor wrote:

Wow. Class of his own.

Interesting his teammate (a Junior) ran 4:14/49/1:55 for 2nd in each race. Did this guy do anything after? Richard Smith.

Richard Smith ended up running something like 1:48/1:49 the next year and was going to go to Tennessee but didn't qualify academically. I forget if he ended up going to a JUCO, but as far as I know he never ran faster.

the magic rat wrote:

Brofessor wrote:

Wow. Class of his own.

Interesting his teammate (a Junior) ran 4:14/49/1:55 for 2nd in each race. Did this guy do anything after? Richard Smith.

Richard Smith ended up running something like 1:48/1:49 the next year and was going to go to Tennessee but didn't qualify academically. I forget if he ended up going to a JUCO, but as far as I know he never ran faster.

Milesplit and IAAF profile for Richard Smith:

looks like the same guy wrote:

Milesplit and IAAF profile for Richard Smith:

https://va.milesplit.com/athletes/pro/278/statshttps://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/united-states/richard-smith-190389

Either didn't realize or forgot that he kept at it for a while and ran 1:46 several years later. Good for him.

Letsrun was abuzz with the news of the jaw-dropping triple that day. It's why many of us tuned in to watch Webb more than El Guerrouj at Pre that year.

Knowing what he was capable of in retrospect, it was a workout on par with Bryn Brown's 4x1600. Faster, but with long recoveries. So roughly equal effort.

This is unbelievable. Thanks for posting.

Not as good as Webb, but one of the Texas guys (Brown and Worley) had an insane double at the state meet a few years back. Off the top of my head something like 4:06 with a 56 final lap, 1:49 negative split. Someone can go check if my memory is correct, I don't know where to find those results.

What is the best double/triple/quadruple ever in HS/college/pro?

That was nuts. It was quite the visual with Webb around 50m back at 800 and then turning on the jets.

Josh Evans at the 2015 Iowa State meet ran 9:00-1:49(medley split) 4:06-1:50 to win 4 events.

My oldest son was running the 3200 that day, so I was able to see Webb's triple. The thing I remember most about it was the 1600. As the leaders went through 800, there were some murmurs in the crowd about Webb - people were not sure exactly what was going on with him. As he came across the line at 800, he very clearly looked down at his watch, pushed a button and simply exploded. The murmurs in the crowd turned to chuckles ("Okay, he's fine. Watch this.") to audible gasps. As Pearl said in the article, Webb flew by the other runners and just kept going. It was, to say the least, very, very impressive.

Before Webb came along, a 4:06 1600m would put you midway through the top ten high school runners in the country for the year, and that is the time he ran. To close a 4:06 with a 56 second last lap in a high school 1600m would be impressive in and of itself. Webb averaged 56 for the last 800m of his 4:06, then ran a 49.29 and 1:49 all within 80 minutes. Remarkable. He might have had better than 3:53 in his legs that day, had he gotten out a bit faster at Pre and had the confidence at that point to run with the big boys. As it was, he gained that confidence that day, and a few years later he was running just behind the pacers and blowing away the field.

Webb was really a crazy talent. It was interesting to see on the recent Big 3 webex --Hall say that when Webb was on, no one could beat him.

I was running the FAt that day so I had a nice view from the press box. There was speculation he was going to try to break 4 in a high school only race which he was clearly capable of that day, but obviously there were other plans.

I remember the lead pack of guys in the 1600 looking at each other like they were wondering what was going on...definitely remember Webb hitting his watch at the 800 before taking off too. The 400 was the closest race and the 800 was extremely impressive in it's own right (I think his PR was around 1:47 at the time, so it wasn't too far off).

4:06 with 2:14 and 1:52 splits would test any top miler. Webb was incredible.

I watched this meet! It was insane - Worley won the 800 in 1:48, then came back and won the 1600 in 4:02 (last lap 55). Worley was ranked #1 in the nation coming into the meet. Certainly puts Webb's greatness into perspective.

former Iowa great wrote:

Josh Evans at the 2015 Iowa State meet ran 9:00-1:49(medley split) 4:06-1:50 to win 4 events.

Must have discovered beer and girls in college. Kid like that should have been a 3:55 guy in college.

plant curious wrote:

This is letsrun, not let'srun.

So I think you meant "lets talk about."

Rojo writes like he speaks. Too fast for his brain.