Putting Alan Webb in perspective

A while back, Jimmie Markham posted an article at The Final Sprint that compared Steve Prefontaine's personal bests with those for all active distance runners.  His post included only those who had a faster PR than Pre at one of six distances: 1500m, mile, 3000m, 2 mile, 5000m, and 10000m.

The big takeaway from his post was that only one man in America has bettered Pre's PRs across the board: Alan Webb.  That got me to thinking, and then to reading, and then to chart-making.  (And then to posting...)

I took Jimmie's lead and made a similar chart with Alan's PRs in the six categories above PLUS the 800m.  Then I included all US distance runners--past and present--with at least one PR faster than Alan's at any distance.  It's really quite amazing what you find (bold names are still active):

That's a whole lotta gray!  I mean, whoa!  There are a few interesting things that come out of this chart:

-- Across these 7 events, there have only been 36 total performances faster than Alan's PRs!  36 total!  Ever!
-- Only 27 runners in the history of US distance running have a PR faster than Alan at any distance!
-- Only 5 distance runners in US history have two PRs faster than Alan -- That means 22 runners were specialists who had faster PRs in only one event!
-- Only 3 runners (Maree, Lagat, Tegenkamp) have three PRs faster than Alan!
-- 8 runners only have PRs faster than Alan in the 10k!
-- 7 runners only have PRs faster than Alan in the 800m -- and only 1 is active!
-- No Steve Prefontaine, Jim Ryun, Frank Shorter, Dave Wottle or Billy Mills!  And today's sensation Ryan Hall is nowhere to be found on this list, either.  Heck, even Dathan Ritzenhein barely squeaked on in the 3000m!

The range that Alan Webb has displayed in his young career--he's still just 25--is remarkable.  Perhaps even more remarkable is that he is open to running the 10k at all.  To my knowledge, Hicham El Guerrouj never ran one.  I don't know that Bernard Lagat has, either.  If they have, it wasn't in my source for this chart.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting and I posted it on my Alan Webb lens.  Stop by there if you want to learn more about Alan or see some videos of his races.

Comments

[jen]

Bryan, thanks for stopping by my blog and giving me much needed encouragement. Once I looked over your blog...wow! You're definitely a speed demon with a lot of determination. So can you teach me, a 10 minute per mile girl to run faster? Oh, and the stats on Alan Webb are amazing. You run with an elite crowd!

[bryan]

Jen,

Thanks for stopping by! I'm sure I could help, but as you know from reading my blog, I truly believe it all starts and ends with you. The more engaged, disciplined, and proud you are about your performance, and the longer and harder you work at it will ultimately be the determinant of you fast you become.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I can't promise anything huge, but I'll definitely respond.

Bryan