NotsoSure wrote:
Doped up monster or not, El G was on a different level than Webb. Maybe on Webb's best day and El G's off day, Webb could have matched him. But nobody was more consistently good than El G in his prime.
Yeah, I'm sure Webb wouldn't have feared El G, but that's beside the point, I'm sure plenty of racers didn't fear El G at his prime (e.g., Ngeny and Kipchoge). People seem to enjoy picking out one runner's greatest races and trying to compare them to another, presumably better, runner's overall career or average races. Yeah, Webb beat Lagat a few times in this era, but he also lost to plenty of guys plenty of times.
And don't forget El G's highs, namely 3:26:00, which is four and a half seconds faster than Webb's best ever race (a very close race in which he kicked down the leader with like 50 to go; it's not like he won it by seconds, though of course he did in his mile PR).