Sole member of Webb Fan Club wrote:
You can say what you want about him but you know he always brings attention to any race he runs. He competitors, albeit maybe only initially, will think about him as a threat.
I'm not convinced that he's done. Jerry and Nike wouldn't be investing time with him if he's not showing something in practice. I bet his 13:37 is just the beginning. Webb might not be known for consistency but he is known for hitting the occasional grand slam, seemingly, out of nowhere.
It would be safe to say his 3:53, 1:43, and 3:32 (his first pro win) came out of seemingly nowhere. Lagat has proven time and time again that being in your 30s doesn't have to hinder you from great 5k times.
I'm always confused by people who say Alan is inconsistent and will have bad races and then pop out an amazing race and then be bad again. His only inconsistency has been when he's injured (which obviously leads to inconsistency and poor racing) and at the Oly's and WC's back in his early 20's, which seemed to be just poor peaking/early peaking (and also partially from bad tactics).
His 3:53 was a great race at his peak senior year, but it wasn't out of nowhere considering he ran 3:59 indoors and was putting up insane workouts and races all season, i.e. 49/4:06(2:14,1:52)/1:49 triple at districts. The only race that seems out of nowhere is 1:43 but he hadn't run an 800 in two years except for a 1:45 800 PR he ran a couple weeks before that, which he ran like right after flying to europe(jetlag).
He's a normal runner with immense talent and amazing work ethic. Which means he go from poor races to solid races very quickly if he is racing himself into shape, and when injured or out of shape he's gonna race poorly. And when he's in fantastic shape he's gonna run great races, like anyone. None of this makes him inconsistent. He has however struggled with championship races. I think running 5k/10k now instead of 1500's will help him a lot with his championship racing because the longer distances are a lot less volatile, less intense, less chance to screw up from one bad move or missed move.
Anyway, his 13:37 i think shows he's just starting to round into shape, and if he runs a 5k with Solinsky again in 3 weeks like the front page says (well, it says Solinsky will be there so hopefully Alan will too) I think we'll see a drop of at least 10 seconds. I think he should only do one 10k this year as he is still building up strength then next year become a full blown 5k/10k racer (i hope he runs some 3k's and still some 1500s too, I was always surprised he only did like one 3k and two 2 mile races pre-2008. In seven years I think he only did 4 3k/2mile races).
I'm excited for the rest of his career. He rose to the top of the running world in his early 20's, then lost the rest of his 20's due to injury and switching coaches way too much. Now he's 30, hopefully healthy, doing distance, has a real solid training group of guys at the top level for the first time in his career, and very well may be knocking out great times into his late 30's like Lagat, I think this is more likely considering his struggles in his 20's. He hasn't accomplished what he wanted/thought he would, so now in his 30's he'll attempt to do that.