Webb stormed off the track and let his frustrations out. Who has never done this after a race? And I'm not talking about the 50 something that just got done running his third marathon after training 4 days a week. I'm talking about someone that put in 6 or 7 days a week of pure base over months, building up to speed and interval work for a goal race. If you have never competed in a race then you would not know what its like to fall apart like that. If you are out there to COMPLETE a race, then go read Runner's World, buy another fuel belt for your weekend warrior runs and walk half your training runs. Now, I personally have never competed on a large scale, just some State Track and Cross meets in High School, but in those races you see your competition that you read about in other races. Not some dude you met on the weekend. Im talking the people between you and glory. I remember finishing 9th at the state meet in xc my senior year and telling my mom off, saying f*** off and get out of my face. I told my coach to go f*** himself when he kicked me off the team because our asst forgot to tell him i had a 102 fever before a race when i was 30 sec off my PR (which he realized and was forgiven). People mess up in races.
Prefontaine went out to win races. He had that fire and desire to be the best. Everyone talks about him and that desire, but if you have never trained for it then you don't really know what its like. When your world revolves around training for specific races with goals of wining and not just finishing, things change.
Webb has the desire and heart that most people don't. You can't run a sub 4 mile and be a loof. He has talent that's for damn sure. I remember going through High School right after he came through. All the talk was being the next Alan Webb. My team hated the kid. All thought he was a douche and was gonna burn out. Well, I think some of that fame and that damn book got to his head. He was not ready mentally for what happened next. He should have stayed at Michigan and trained and not gone pro to get the glory. He needed a mind check that he never got. He is "Alan Webb." He has goals for himself that he is not acheiving so that is tough to swallow.
We put him in the spot light because he is "Alan Webb." What if after the race, Garrett Heath would have blown off some f bombs and ran in frustration a workout to let some steam out? No one would give a crap. But, "Alan Webb" did it. What about Manzano? How about his race? Nothing out of his camp at all. Webb is the name, he gets the story. He is the Lebron of American Running right now.