He’s stronger, fitter, and nearly six seconds faster than he was in 2001, when he smashed Jim Ryun’s high school mile record. But consistency has never been Alan Webb’s strong point. Will Beijing finally bring America’s star runner the glory he—and the rest of us—have been waiting for?

6/24/08

One Saturday morning last September, an elevator door opened and half a dozen elite runners spilled into the lobby of the Warwick Hotel, in Midtown Manhattan. They wore tracksuits and clean white sneakers and had iPod buds stuck in their ears, and they were greeted by coaches, handlers, or parents who'd been milling around the lounge waiting to escort them to the start of the Fifth Avenue Mile.