Runnerville

The 2008 Carlsbad 5000 story was always going to be Alan Webb’s to make, no matter who won or what time they ran. That’s what comes with superstar status. After snatching Steve Scott’s quarter-century old American mile record last summer in Europe, then backing it with the fastest 1500 meters and second best 800 in the world for 2007, the expectations for 2008 ramped up even higher. Now, he would begin his Olympic push at the Southern California road race Steve Scott helped design 23 years ago and then won in its first three years.

But when 24 year-old Ethiopian Terefe Maregu outkicked England’s Mo Farah for the 2008 Carlsbad 5000 title on a glorious SoCal spring day by just a single tick of the clock, and then Kenya’s Haron Lagat, Australia’s Collis Birmingham, and 2006 Arkansas NCAA 10,000m champion Josephat Lagat of Kenya crossed in a blanket finish one second behind Mo, no one turned to his neighbor and exclaimed, “what a finish that was!” No, all anyone wanted to know was what happened to Alan Webb?

Necks craned up Carlsbad Village Drive looking for the American superstar as one by one the professional field paraded across the line. But Webb would never emerge around the corner for the final 300-meter sprint to the tape in front of the big crowd, many of whom had run the same course through the series of morning races. He had pulled off the course around 2.6 miles left to wonder, along with his many fans, what was happening in these important early season outings in this Olympic year.

“The plan wasn’t to come here and do this,” said a disconsolate Webb to the press following his second straight flameout of 2008. “I’m definitely disappointed. I came here to win the race, but I felt like I was pushing the whole way, and was just trying to hang in there and find a rhythm. But I just couldn’t get into it. I was surging just to stay up where I was, and we weren’t even going out that super fast.”

Alan Webb came into the Carlsbad 5000 after finishing 16th two weeks ago at the USATF 8K road championship in New York’s Central Park. But a case of food poisoning was behind that performance. In Carlsbad the inability to fire on all cylinders was more problematic, because it had its antecedents in his training, and training isn’t science, it’s art.

“We have changed things a little bit,” Webb admitted in his characteristically forthright manner. “I’m not satisfied just doing what I’ve done before, so we’ve upped both the quality and quantity of my training. And sometimes you do too much. I hope that’s the answer, because that would be a positive outcome. I’ll have to sit down with my coach and discuss what changes we will have to make, either training or racing, but it’s a fine line, and you want to be dancing right there. And it’s easy to go over the edge.”

There was big buzz when Elite Racing announced the signing of Webb for Carlsbad. No American has won this race since Utah’s Doug Padilla in 1990, and certainly no American with Olympic medal chances in the 1500 meters has ever run on this seaside course. Steve Scott, the co-designer of the route with New Zealand’s 1976 Olympic 1500-meter champion John Walker, had already passed his Olympic peak when he won the first of three straight titles in 1986 in a then world best 13:32.

After the New York City disappointment, Carlsbad was to be Webb’s mulligan, another chance to confirm the efficacy of his base training as he made the transfer over to mile preparation in the outdoor season.

“You want to be in the best shape of your life but without the speed sharpening that comes with mile and 1500 meter preparation,” explained Steve Scott, who helped broadcast the race for Fox Sports Net (the show will air on FSN on Monday April 21st at 3:30 p.m. pacific time). “I expected Alan to dominate this field, and run sub 13:10, because he’s capable of doing that.”

A time of that quality would require a committed start. But from the sound of the horn, the character of the race took on a hesitant quality, as none of the 13 professionals from eight countries wanted to be the pack leader. If one man goes in a closely matched field like this, they all go. But if that one man doesn’t emerge and push, the pack forms up and the looking and waiting begins.

The entire 13-man field held tight through a glacial 4:25 opening mile. In Carlsbad, that’s the equivalent of narcolepsy. In his two 13:00 flat world record years of 2000-2001, Kenya’s Sammy Kipketer flew through the mile in 3:59 and 3:58. Even last year’s relatively modest split was 4:15. The pack remained steady through two miles in 8:47 (4:22) with Mo Farah the nominal leader. Even so Webb was adrift at the back looking like he was struggling for every inch. At 10:25 it was over; he was a broken man as the jockeying began for the endgame by the remaining contenders.

“I was going to just jog it in,” said Webb, “but I couldn’t even jog. Once they broke away it was end of story.”

“There is nothing specifically wrong,” shrugged Webb’s coach Scott Razko attempting to put the best spin he could on the day. “This is the only sport where you are pushing yourself to the ultimate limit every time. So there’s more weight placed on each performance. Alan has been a little tired lately, but he’s been able to train, and get in solid workouts. Maybe over the course of the last month we’ve pushed a little too much past the point where he’s been before. You never know when it will equal a bonk.”

America is hungry for a running hero on the world stage. That’s why people get so excited when Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein, Ryan Hall, or Matt Tegenkamp delivers a world beating performance. And why the fans are correspondingly so disappointed when their expectations aren’t met. If Alan Webb goes on to Beijing and returns home with anything less than a gold medal – see Jim Ryun 1968 – the hard-core fans will be merciless. But never doubt that Alan isn’t right there with them.

The French have a wonderful old proverb, Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien, the best is the enemy of the good. And perhaps that is the conceit of men like Webb. He told Steve Scott the day before the race that as a young man he went looking to see what the high school national record was in the mile, and the American and world records as well, the inference being these have always been his goals. No one is harder on Alan Webb than Alan Webb. And you can tell by the way he’s willing to lose in such grand, public fashion as he continues to dance so tantalizingly – at times frustratingly - along that fine line that defines an expectation for the ages, his and ours alike.

CARLSBAD 2008 RESULTS
Men:
1. Terefe Maregu, 24 ETH - 13:34
2. Mo Farah, 25 GBR - 13:35
3. Haron Lagat, 24 KEN - 13:36
4. Collis Birmingham, 22 AUS - 13:36
5. Josephat Boit, 25 KEN - 13:36
6. Shadrack Kosgei, 24 KEN - 13:50
7. Boniface Songok, 27 KEN - 14:01
8. Michael Aish, 30 NZL - 14:06
9. Julio Cesar Perez Mora MEX - 14:13
10. Dmitry Safronov, 26 RUS - 14:27
11. Steve Slattery, 27 USA - 14:30
12. Nick Bromley, 25 AUS - 14:47
Alan Webb, 25 USA - DNF

Women:
1. Vivian Cheruiyot, 25 KEN - 15:14
2. Rose Kosgei, 26 KEN - 15:21
3. Genoveva Kigen, 20 KEN - 15:41
4. Sara Slattery, 26 USA - 15:59
5. Korene Hinds, 31 JAM - 16:04
6. Everlyne Lagat, 27 KEN - 16:08
7. Kathy Butler, 33 GBR - 16:13
8. Lisa Blomme, 29 SWE - 16:23
9. Ida Nilsson, 26 SWE - 16:36
10. Jane Kibii, 22 KEN - 16:41
11. Mandi Zemba, 25 USA - 16:49
12. Mardrea Hyman, 34 JAM - 17:07

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