Emotional Webb has plan to be USA's best-ever miler

	Alan Webb first became an American icon in 2001, when he broke Jim Ryun's national high school mile record in Oregon (3:53.43). Kirby Lee/WireImage.com

When it comes to U.S. runner Alan Webb, there has always been a plan. The plan has been detoured, as plans will be, but Team Webb -- primarily Alan and longtime coach Scott Raczko, but also agent Ray Flynn -- have always had their eyes on more distant goals than the people who evaluate them from afar (media, bloggers, anonymous web posters).

Last Friday, Webb won a Golden League 1,500 meters in Paris, outlasting Mehdi Baala and running 3:30.54, the fourth-fastest 1,500 ever run by an American and the fastest ever by a native-born U.S. runner (only Bernard Lagat and Sydney Maree have run faster; Lagat's two-year-old U.S. mark is 3:29.30). Webb's next European outing (in advance of the late August world championships in Japan) will be a mile on July 21 in Brasschaaf, Belgium, where Webb can make a serious run at Steve Scott's revered U.S. record of 3:47.69.

But right now, I'm thinking back six years, to the spring and summer of 2001, when Webb first exploded. But I'm not thinking about the epic afternoon in Eugene, Ore. when he ran 3:53.43 to break Jim Ryun's national high school mile record at the Prefontaine Classic (although it remains one of the most exciting athletic moments I have ever witnessed; and I've witnessed a bunch).

I'm also not thinking about the early evening a few weeks later when Webb was warming down next to the Hayward Field track, also in Eugene, and veteran U.S. sprinter Jon Drummond said to me, theatrically, "Alan Webb! The savior of track and field!'' The theory being that if the United States could only produce another great miler -- a Ryun, a Marty Liquori -- then track and field would return to its place among the great sports on the American landscape.

(That theory was spectacularly flawed, but Drummond's exhortation accurately captures the hype surrounding Webb at the time. Heck, I had personally been chasing him around for more than a year, waiting for him to run Sub-Four, just as I had with Gabe Jennings four years earlier).

The day I'm thinking about was before the Pre mile and before Webb failed to make the U.S. team for the 2001 world championships. I was at South Lakes High School in Reston Va., where Webb was a senior. I had watched Webb run a blistering set of 400s and then talked with him.

Late that afternoon, I walked with Raczko to this car. We talked about some other young runners in the U.S., and I mentioned some heavy workouts that one of them had been doing. Raczko shook his head. It seemed like this particular runner -- who I won't name because he's doing just fine now and there's no reason to embarrass him or his high school coach and besides, Raczko and I were just BS-ing -- might be doing a lot of junk miles. "Where is the value in that?'' Raczko asked. "How is that going to help him in the future?''

Here is what I took from that conversation: Raczko was coaching a very good high school track team with one very special runner. The time was now; but for Raczko (and Webb), the time was also the next decade.

Webb's subsequent story is well-known in the track world: He went to Michigan and ran reasonably well, but left after a year, turned professional and rejoined Raczko. (He voices no negatives toward Michigan, and even said after winning the U.S. 1,500 title in June, "I bleed maize and blue.''). He dominated the 1,500 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2004, ran his mile PR of 3:48.92 in '05 (fourth-fastest U.S. runner in history).

A year ago he opened his outdoor season by defeating Dathan Ritzenhein in a 10,000 meters at Stanford in 27:34.72. Only eight U.S. men have run faster, and none of them were 3:48 milers, or even close. It demonstrated a startling range, but also led to questions about Webb's best event. Should he stick with the mile, where he seemed to lack tactical speed for championship races? Should he move up to the 5,000, where he could red-line from start to finish at a fast pace?