LRC Feature: 10 years ago, Alan Webb was the greatest miler on the planet. An inside look at Webb's magical summer.

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"One of Rudd’s friends ran for Raczko and mentioned that her teammate “Alan” would be in town and needed someone to show him around. Rudd called the number her friend had given her and after a few minutes, it dawned on her.

“Wait, are you Alan Webb, the runner?” she asked.

Rudd was dating another runner at the time, who, ironically, had a poster of Webb above his bed. The real thing was even more impressive. He helped her cook her dinner. That was new."

Which one of you had the Alan Webb poster?

This was a phenomenal piece of journalism.

Thank you. Most enjoyable read I've had in a long long time.

Webb is back, baby!

phenomenal article!!

Great piece -- thanks!

Very well done write up! Really enjoyed that read.

2007 was the summer before my junior year of high school. Unreal watching him.

Only other summer of running that comes semi-close was watching Solinsky in 2010

The week of the World Champs and Letsrun does a feature on '2007 - the summer of Webb'.

What a great piece. Good job.

It is interesting that in retrospect Webb recognizes that he wasn't patient enough in his career. I know there was a lot of debate about whether Raczko would be an effective coach for him. He clearly was sufficient at writing the workouts, but at the elite level coaches are there just as much to hold you back and make you patient as they are to push you. I still wonder if different coaching, someone that Webb had really bought into (with more experience and confidence to tell Alan "no" or "rest"), would have made the difference.

Webb is definitely a bit of a mercurial figure, but has a prominent place in the history of US distance running.

Such a great write-up. Thank you Letsrun.

Does that few months include the world championships?

yoyomama wrote:

For my money his Freshman XC season at Michigan was a microcosm of his career. The Big Ten XC meet at Illinois was just like the AR in 2007. He stomped a great runner in Teg and really looked unbeatable, but he couldn't carry that through to the NCAA meet just as the peak didn't last til Osaka in 2007.

Ever mercurial, I always believed he was the future of the 5K never more so than after the 27:34. He could probably have destroyed the American Junior 5K record that October day in 2001. But he didn't. Still it was a great career and I well remember jumping out of my chair as he came down the stretch in Eugene knowing the Ryun's legendary record was about to fall. That day was the beginning of the resurgence of distance running in this country.

Canova also thought that 5000m was Webb's best event.

he was injured and sick for world's.

He was 24, which is when bone density is usually at it's peak and most world records are set. No surprise.

Too bad the summer of Webb was in 07 instead of 08. He would have easily captured a top 5 placing in the 08 olympic 1500 meter final if he had primed out in that year. Hell he might have even taken the bronze. Who knows?

That was a great read! I'm a little surprised Raczko was so willing to talk about all that given the (apparently) rocky relationship he and Webb have. Regardless, the article was very well done.

Webb was such an intense, ferocious competitor, and will probably always be one of my favorite runners. I was in high school when he ran his 3:53, and I thought it was the most mind-blowing thing I had ever seen. It's still one of my favorite races.

SEDave wrote:

What a great piece. Good job.

It is interesting that in retrospect Webb recognizes that he wasn't patient enough in his career. I know there was a lot of debate about whether Raczko would be an effective coach for him. He clearly was sufficient at writing the workouts, but at the elite level coaches are there just as much to hold you back and make you patient as they are to push you. I still wonder if different coaching, someone that Webb had really bought into (with more experience and confidence to tell Alan "no" or "rest"), would have made the difference.

Webb is definitely a bit of a mercurial figure, but has a prominent place in the history of US distance running.

Spot on. Webb's fire ran counter to the patience he needed.

Great article, Letsrun!

If he was 8th in the 2007 World Champs during his prime summer, what makes you think he would've held his peak to the Olympics had it happened a year later?

He would've done his bonehead 100m sprint after 400m this time instead of after 800m (see 2005) with the thought of OLYMPIC CHAMP on his mind and faded to DFL.

Up until about 2013, every time he toed the line, no matter what kind of shape we thought he was in, everyone always had the thought in the back of their mind "Webb might just destroy everyone here". It was awesome when he did.