Alan Webb - 14:14, 12th Place at CVS

T&F Journalist wrote:

think about it wrote:

considering he finished his track season 2 and a half months ago I would imagine this is very early in his base training so not a bad result at all.

When Webb left Al Sal, that pretty much spelled the end of his career. I knew that then, and it has only become more self evident this past season. If he had any chance at all for a comeback, it was going to be with Big Al. Once he closed the door on that opportunity, that was the death nail.

Webb is at the moment without a coach since he didn't follow Vig and is still in Virginia while Robby Andrews did follow Vig. With that in mind, and also Webb seemingly making the decision to move up in distance, perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity to go back to Salazar

Maybe Hall will coach him and he'll coach Hall.

The Waterboy wrote:

T&F Journalist wrote:

When Webb left Al Sal, that pretty much spelled the end of his career. I knew that then, and it has only become more self evident this past season. If he had any chance at all for a comeback, it was going to be with Big Al. Once he closed the door on that opportunity, that was the death nail.

Webb is at the moment without a coach since he didn't follow Vig and is still in Virginia while Robby Andrews did follow Vig. With that in mind, and also Webb seemingly making the decision to move up in distance, perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity to go back to Salazar

-----

^

You are correct; me knows AW will rejoin group in a short time. Weird but true!

Once he closed the door on that opportunity, that was the death knell.

Koppenberg wrote:

Being honest is not the same as being an arsehole. That's the thing a lot of people refuse to grow up and understand. Yes, it is perfectly accurate to comment that Webb's times are in a decline and to predict that he'll never set another PR.

It is another thing altogether to communicate this is a spiteful and cruel way.

So here's a newsflash the rest of the adults in the room learned a long time ago: being honest is never an excuse for being a jerk. You can do the former without the latter, if you've a mind to.

Post of the year.

Hit the knell on the head wrote:

Once he closed the door on that opportunity, that was the death knell.

WTF are you talking about?

Why O Why Has My Underdog Gone wrote:

"lash out"? Another poster used the term "hateful"?

lel has simply stated the truth. Since when is stating the truth lashing out or hateful?

"simply stated the truth" - no, not at all. For one, his "truth" is what we call an opinion. And it was charged with words like "has been" and "decline". How can that possibly be a truth when the man is not retired? The answer: it is not. Lel (and yourself) are casting aspersions masquerading as truth, in a shamefully self-indulgent display of shadenfreude.

It probably makes you feel tough.

*Schadenfreude. It's German.

This is the power that Webb still holds.

He places 12th in a minor race and gets a multi-page thread about it.

The guy deserves appearence fees wherever he goes.

CVS should send him a check.

Not me.

Again.

cmurph wrote:

I just don't get how he's this much worse than he used to be

Eventually, EVERYONE is much worse than they used to be.

Not much to get there.

Is everyone just upset with Webb because he showed so much promise and never amounted to what we had hoped?

Or is it that they feel if they had that talent they would have done things differently and gotten us a medal?

I know that if I could be a burned out Pro Runner still making money to train everyday instead of sitting my poor excuse for a closet office and posting on these boards I would be. Oh to run 14:14 in a post season road race and be paid to do it. I wonder what that feels like?

Get u some - I don't think many of us are in any way "upset" over this. Rather, I feel for the guy, and want him to succeed, and I cringe at how painful it is for him. Running can be a cruel master, and runners decline in skills at different ages. It is ironic that Salazar is mentioned here. For an elite runner, not replicating Salazar's experiences should be a very important objective. He spent 8 depressing, stressful years post 1984 chasing the golden ring, trying to get back to the condition he was once in, struggling to see his 10k time drop radically to where he could not break 30 minutes. I see the same kind of thing here with Webb, except that Webb is so incredibly talented he can still muscle (and I mean muscle, because he sure isn't relaxed) his way to a 3:37 1500. It is not that fans are upset with him by and large, rather, it is just not easy to witness this.

+2

Sounds like a tv show

I'm not referring to every person posting on here. It just gets old how it seems as if everyone is bashing the crap out of this guy. I have said this before... We were all sitting at our computers pressing Refresh on Flotrack and dying to watch that video of him setting the American Record. I'm not talking about Sal. Sal is a great coach and he is doing amazing things for the USA distance running program along with Helping Mo out.

What I am referencing is how as a running community we bash the heck out of our American Record Holder in the Mile who is still trying to capture the dream of running that we all wish we could do.. Its old, its annoying.. I'm 25 years old and will be 26 in a few weeks. I am sick of hearing how Webb is washed up. Can't we respect the guy for what he did in the past, for giving a resurgence to American running when he was a high school-er, for breaking a record that no one else attempted for a long time.

The guy was a damn good runner for a long time. Professional at 19 and hit his peak in 2007. I really wish that he would make his comeback and have one amazing season where he makes the world team, finds his way into the final and can just retire on top. Something I wish we could all be satisfied with. But the odds of that happening are about as great as the Cleveland Browns even being a factor in the Playoffs in 2012.

No matter what he does he will be looked at as a failure on these boards even though I will always view him differently.

where is vig and robby andrews currently?

This.

She's Gotta Have It wrote:

Hit the knell on the head wrote:

WTF are you talking about?

I'm thinking somebody just put the death nail in some idiom's coffin.

Princeton. Vig is the Mens XC coach, Robby will be here in the spring, doing god knows what.