Today, I saw a thread asking if Alan Webb could have run 1:45 in highschool:
"Could Webb have BROKEN the high school 800 RECORD??????"
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6895714
I was curious, so I rewatched his 3:53 highschool race. I never knew his lap times were so spread out. For comparison, I've included Verbicas, Fernandez, and Ryun's highschool lap times. You can see how spread out Webb's (and Ryun's) lap times were.
Webb's 3:53.43 ~ 58.1, 59.1, 61.1, 55.1
Ryun's 3:58 ~ 58.3, 62.5, 61.8, 55.7
Verzbicas' 3:59.71 ~ 60, 61.97, 59.41,58.33
Fernandez' 4:00.29 ~ 60.65, 59.79,59.08, 60.77
Using this lap time optimizer,
http://timescalculator.appspot.com/optimizer
Webb's 3:53.43 => 3:50.07
3:50 seems fast but from Webb's admission, he was holding back for the first 3 laps:
"The plan was to run conservatively for two and a half laps and then to see what I could do"
from:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/pop/010529snaptuesday.html
Also, Webb's final lap was 55.1. That's not even considering that Webb spent some of that last lap in lane 2.
So, maybe 3:50.07 isn't so crazy. He was running fast on the last lap. If 200m splits are used instead of 400m splits, he may very well have been in 3:49.xx shape that day.
Now, going back to the 2 questions:
1) How good really was Alan Webb in highschool?
2) Could Alan Webb have run 1:45 in highshcool?
Best I could find for his highschool 400/800 times was 47.4 & 1:47.74 (from
http://www.youthrunner.com/news/story/alan-webb-interview-3313
). Using those numbers, the calculator shows 2 possibilities for his highschool fitness as:
Possibility #1
1:47.74/3:50.07:
100 0:13.26
200 0:24.71
400 0:51.12
800 1:47.74
1000 2:17.32
1500 3:33.22
1-mile 3:50.07
3000 7:31.51
2-mile 8:07.07
5000 13:03.70
10000 27:33.06
half-mara 61:25.13
marathon 129:02.69
Possibility #2
47.4/3:50.07:
100 0:11.43
200 0:21.94
400 0:47.4
800 1:43.98
1000 2:14.11
1500 3:32.51
1-mile 3:50.07
3000 7:44.26
2-mile 8:22.29
5000 13:42.58
10000 29:39.27
half-mara 67:43.19
marathon 145:09.51
Those sprint times in "Possibility #1" are obviously too slow (since his reported 400 time is 47.4). So that means that his 1:47.74 was not the best he could have run. Considering this, the other pair of input times ("Possibility #2") produces a much more reasonable set of times. However, I've heard that his 47.4 400m time was really a relay split. Considering that, there is a 3rd possible set of times:
Possibility #3
48.4 (47.4 relay + 1.0sec?)/3:50.07)
100 0:11.93
200 0:22.68
400 0:48.4
800 1:44.99
1000 2:14.97
1500 3:32.70
1-mile 3:50.07
3000 7:40.84
2-mile 8:18.20
5000 13:32.13
10000 29:05.35
half-mara 66:01.58
marathon 140:49.66
For comparison, Galen Rupp's alleged splits in his highschool 13:37.91 => 13:31.17. Who would have won a highschool 5000 between those two???