Alan Webb Tells LetsRun.Com His 2012 Olympic Dreams Are Over - He Won't Run 1,500

I still think this guy can have a career if he decides to go for it....maybe things did not workout in 2012 but if he settles down in VA, he can be back on top..

I don't see why he does not go and just run the 1500. He really has nothing to lose. In the next few years he can finish his career off as a solid 3:55 miler. Who knows maybe a 3:53 is around the corner.

I hate to be suspicious but you have a point. I remember Regina Jacobs running near pr's in her late 30's. We know how that turned out.

Still, if true, he has got away with it for a long time and in big competitions.

Regina Jacobs almost always fell apart in international competition. It was thought that she was off the juice when the testing was done and therefore, she couldn't perform.

Also, when did Lagat test positive?

Greatest comeback of all time! All those terrible races were just leading up to this moment and Alan Webb's redemption! Consistency and racing tactics are overrated! Finally he proves he can respond to racing and not just a pacer! All those "Webb is baaaaaack" posters were right!

... wait what? ... He finished where? ... Then said what?...

If I were to judge Webb based on this interview, he comes across as a great guy. He speaks honestly, fairly happily and honestly appraises us of his options.

I don't understand the hate. He's a top notch runner with typical ups and downs. Maybe more downs than ups, but thats life. He runs for himself and works hard at it.

Webb is an individual and should be judged as such.

Petition to get in the 5K was totally legitimate based on the interview.

He had no shot in 1500 without speed work, 5k was his best chance.

No Way wrote:

I don't understand how anyone can not like Webb

It is not Webb. Webb is just a man; nothing more & nothing less...

What turns people off is all the knob gobblers whom have been on his jock since high school... They have been his curse.

bladerunner wrote:

I hate to be suspicious but you have a point. I remember Regina Jacobs running near pr's in her late 30's. We know how that turned out.

Still, if true, he has got away with it for a long time and in big competitions.

Regina Jacobs almost always fell apart in international competition. It was thought that she was off the juice when the testing was done and therefore, she couldn't perform.

Also, when did Lagat test positive?

The time to be suspicious of Lagat has come and gone. He didn't run the 5k (seriously) when he was running 3:2x, so his times now don't really raise red flags for me. And he's far from his PR's now in the 1500 and mile. The guy is phenomenally talented, and when coupling that with EPO, the sky would've been the limit. As much as I want to not believe it, though, I wouldn't be surprised if he was juicing (given the positive A sample) while battling it out with a (possibly) juiced El G in their prime.

They were both juiced... 99% of the peeps running at that level are very talented individuals who become extraordinary with biological enhancements. To run at that level you have to "stick" between workouts.

Alan is a freaking joke. It all started with that hair piece..

Down hill ever since.

No gold, No commercials, No Wheaties, No nothing

Hope that we will see more of Webb. The past 4-5 years have been rough, ever since Paris 2007 and his AR that same summer. Hard to wrap your head around this season race choices--go go go in the 1500-mile and then at the last minute doing the 5 at the trials and then pulling the plug. Seems like mixing in a couple (fast and fresh, not doubling) 5000s earlier in the season might have helped a bit, and helped make the decision which event to do at the OTs. That's hindsight, but all spring it was kind of, what's going on here?...and to end the season/possibly career like this is sad.

Webb needs another breather for a few months, get used to fatherhood, and then maybe hit the reset button. Maybe reinvent himself.

You know, has there been an American road running hero in the past 15 years? Sure Ritz and Hall and Meb, but Ritz is a track runner who sometimes runs roads, while Hall and Meb are marathoners.

Remember the days of Herb Lindsay, Jon Sinclair, Mark Curp, Kieth Brantly, Ed Eyestone? Could someone of Webb's ability develop into a top flight road runner as a second career. Less pressure, might be more fun, make some money to support his family, and then in 2015 shift back and see what's there for 5 and 10 on the track.

Regardless of whether or not he keeps competing, I think Webb has a great future coaching. He can teach a lot of young runners some important things, both running-related and life-related.

Karl Pilkington wrote:

Regardless of whether or not he keeps competing, I think Webb has a great future coaching. He can teach a lot of young runners some important things, both running-related and life-related.

I can sum up everything he has to offer as a coach in one sentence: "Don't repeat my mistakes". He didn't have the patience to be a consistent athlete, he won't have the patience to coach. Just read Salazar's book, he points out Webb's impatience, which we all knew about after his freshman year at Michigan anyway.

A standard guy wrote:

What more could you want?

to taste a gun maybe

If he can get in 3 years of consistent, year round training, I bet he could run close to 13 flat - of course that is a big if.

Point is, he has been hurt so often and so recently that he hasn't been able to chain together seasons, which is how you get really fast. He's too old to do a few 400s and get to 90%. It just takes longer when you get older.

I hope he sticks with it, and I think he will.

agip wrote:

If he can get in 3 years of consistent, year round training, I bet he could run close to 13 flat - of course that is a big if.

Point is, he has been hurt so often and so recently that he hasn't been able to chain together seasons, which is how you get really fast. He's too old to do a few 400s and get to 90%. It just takes longer when you get older.

I hope he sticks with it, and I think he will.

his PR is 1310 and he's thought to be more talent the all the sub 13 american and has beat them at there event.

Say what you want about the guy; he is a little quirky, he's a head case, he is a sore loser at times etc. I don't think anybody who watched the interview can honestly say that Webb is not a down to earth and genuinely good spirited person. It is a damn shame that his career has not amounted to what expectations. Great talent can really come with some great demons at times. I mean this is a guy who just ran a 14:01 5k and it was a terrible awful race for him. How many of us can honestly say that if we ever ran that in our lives it would be that bad of a race for us.

Salazar's group all admitted that Webb was the most talented one in the group when he was in Portland. It has painful not just for Webb to watch his career go down the toilet but everybody who has ever trained with Webb and knows just how talented he really is.

He had a great career for the most part, but he will also go down in history as the only 3:46 miler never to get either a World Championship or Olympic medal. At nearly the age Webb is now Jim Spivey came back from not making his 4th Olympic team by running a 3:49 mile at 30!!

Webb will join Holman, Falcon, and Byers as strange anomalies in US distance running. All these guys showed great promise and yet had little to show for it on the international stage. I don’t think Falcon even made an Olympic team despite having a 3:49 mile PB.

Maybe this is what is meant by the "born in America distance running symdrone". I think Webb will be a bizzare footnote in US mile running history.

Scott and Ryun are still the American kings of the mile.

Tommy2Nutts wrote:

If I were to judge Webb based on this interview, he comes across as a great guy. He speaks honestly, fairly happily and honestly appraises us of his options.

I don't understand the hate. He's a top notch runner with typical ups and downs. Maybe more downs than ups, but thats life. He runs for himself and works hard at it.

Webb is an individual and should be judged as such.

Background wrote:

Petition to get in the 5K was totally legitimate based on the interview.

He had no shot in 1500 without speed work, 5k was his best chance.

he's not like the average elite he's a more talented train wreck

the flip flop on the 15 vs 5000 is typical ...... coach change, moving , quit school, event changes ,12 second 100 at random he can commit