STRIKING DISTANCE

They no longer lead the pack. Haven’t, in fact, for 20 years or so. But led by 18-year-old phenom Alan Webb, American distance runners are suddenly just off the shoulder of the rest of the world.

It has been a long comeback.

On Sunday, Webb, a senior from South Lakes High in Reston, Va., smashed a most revered record, the standard for a high school mile set 36 years ago by Jim Ryun.

With a blistering 58-second final lap, Webb crossed the finish line at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., in 3 minutes 53.43 seconds, well under Ryun’s 3:55.9 in 1965 at San Diego.

Webb became the first high school runner to break four minutes outdoors since Marty Liqouri in 1967, and his time was the fastest by any American since 1998. Along the way, he also broke Ryun’s 1,500-meter scholastic record.

But the big news wasn’t only how fast Webb ran, but the speed with which his popularity has grown.

There was a standing ovation as he finished fifth against several of the world’s top milers, among them world-record holder Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, who won the race in a U.S. all-comers record of 3:49.92.

Then came ovations on two victory laps, one with Guerrouj, and another by himself, during which Webb soaked in the adulation of the raucous crowd that stood and waved and cheered the whole time.

“I broke the records of an American distance-running legend,” Webb said. “Those records were out there a long time. People thought they were unattainable. I didn’t think so. I was confident. I went for them. I didn’t hold anything back.”

And as impressive as his race was, Webb’s maturity and poise also drew rave reviews. Sitting at a table just off the track, he signed autographs for hundreds of fans for more than an hour.

Alberto Salazar, a three-time winner of the New York City Marathon, said Webb was “the greatest hope” the U.S. has had in distance running since Ryun.

In fact, however, Webb’s record-breaking race was only one of several top performances by American distance runners this year.

Mebrahtom Keflezighi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who fled war-ravaged Eritrea as an 8-year-old, took out another long-standing record earlier this month at the Stanford Invitational. He broke a 15-year-old American record, the second-oldest in U.S. track and field, by running the 10,000-meter race in 27 minutes 13.98 seconds while finishing fourth in an Olympic-caliber field.

The sight of Keflezighi comfortably on the heels of the long-dominant Kenyans sent roars through the crowd of nearly 3,500. When the Kenyans tried to pull away with five laps remaining, the cheers motivated him to hang on.

“It was inspiring,” said Bob Larsen, a former coach at UCLA now committed to the development of post-collegians such as the 26-year-old Keflezighi. “That’s how we’re going to get our breakthrough, when the crowd is getting into it and we’re challenging the Kenyans.”

Keflezighi, Bob Kennedy and Abdi Abdirahman finished among the top 15 at the world cross-country championships in Belgium in March, helping the U.S. win bronze, its best result since finishing second in 1984.

At the Stanford Invitational, Alan Culpepper of Superior, Colo., finished one spot behind Keflezighi in 27:33.93, a personal record and the sixth-fastest time ever by an American. Abdirahman finished ninth in 28:01.02.

At the marathon level, Rod DeHaven of Madison, Wis., finished sixth in the Boston Marathon last month, the first top-10 finish for an American since 1994. The U.S., which hasn’t had a Boston winner since Greg Meyer in 1983, had two runners in the top 15 and nine among the top 31.

Before his latest record-breaking performance, Webb ran the mile indoors in 3:59:86 in January at the New Balance Games in New York City, becoming only the fourth U.S. high school athlete and the first in 34 years to break four minutes in the event.

Equally impressive was the performance of Dathan Ritzenhein, a senior at Rockford (Mich.) High, who last month in the Penn Relays at Philadelphia ran the second fastest 5,000-meter race in history for a high school runner.

Ritzenhein’s time of 13:51.69 moved him ahead of such legends as Steve Prefontaine, 13:52.8 in 1969, and Craig Virgin, 13:58.25 in 1973.

Franklyn Sanchez, 19, a Georgetown freshman, broke Prefontaine’s 31-year-old U.S. junior record in the 5,000 meters in March, clocking in at 13:38.39.

Although American women haven’t had the up-and-down history in competitive distance running that men have, they have made similar progress. Deena Drossin, a graduate of Agoura High, set a meet record of 31:51.05 in the 10,000 at the Olympic trials last summer and won her fourth consecutive U.S. cross-country title in February.

Monday, Drossin won the women’s elite race in the Bolder Boulder 10-kilometer road race at Boulder, Colo., becoming only the second American winner in the last 17 years.

Such successes have some talking about reliving the heady days of the 1970s and early ‘80s.

A national running craze began with Frank Shorter’s marathon victory at the 1972 Olympics. It was on that world stage that Americans also recorded a second- and two fourth-place marathon finishes during the ‘70s.

Bill Rodgers was a four-time winner of the Boston and New York City marathons between 1975-80. Salazar won the New York Marathon three times, and recording the world’s fastest marathon time for 1982.

“It was a golden era,” Rodgers said. “The running boom was so new and there was such excitement.”

The following year, Americans took the top three spots in the Boston Marathon.

No U.S.-born man has won a major marathon since.

Peter Pfitzinger was America’s top marathoner at the 1984 and ’88 Olympics, finishing 11th and 14th, Steve Spence was 12th in 1992, Keith Brantly was 28th in 1996, and DeHaven finished 69th in 2000.

Kennedy did his part to keep U.S. hopes alive, becoming the first non-African to run the 5,000 under 13 minutes while finishing second to Kenya’s Daniel Komen at the 1996 Galan Grand Prix. A month later at the Atlanta Olympics, Kennedy briefly took the lead in the 5,000 with two laps to go.

But beyond that, there wasn’t much to cheer about.

There were several reasons for the slide, and identifying them was the first step in moving ahead.

The U.S. used to drop its elite college runners after graduation, leaving them to manage their conditioning, establish their training facilities and find their transportation to races. Olympic development programs lacked consistency.

No one was more aware of all that than Larsen. Before moving to UCLA in 1979, Larsen had led Grossmont Community College in El Cajon to seven state cross-country titles. His runners also set 11 national junior college records.

During that time, Larsen coached athletes with Keflezighi’s potential, but once their college eligibility ended, there wasn’t much more he could do for them.

At the college level, often, distance runners were passed up for scholarship offers, which were instead given to athletes who could score points for the team sooner.

Larsen said he was guilty of this thinking as well.

“We found ways to win the NCAA [championships] in other events,” said Larsen, who spent 21 years at UCLA. “Someone in the sprints or throws could score their freshman year, but a distance runner usually takes a couple years to develop.”

The emergence of the Kenyans and other elite runners from African nations soon had Americans running in place.

The Kenyans began their running revolution in the 1960s and ‘70s, but it wasn’t until prize money began to grow that they took an interest in competing in the U.S.

Ibrahim Hussein was the first Kenyan to win the Boston Marathon, in 1988. Kenyans won 10 in succession from 1991-2000, including a sweep of the top five spots in 1996.

“The dollar goes a long way in a second-world economy,” Rodgers said. “I think the U.S. runners were just as fast over the years, but the ante got raised with all the high-altitude athletes.”

Larsen decided to do something about it. With the Olympic trials on the horizon, he left UCLA and helped establish Team USA’s distance-running program.

The program is the brainchild of USATF and Running USA, a program that promotes and develops elite distance runners. Most of the training is done at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista and at a high-altitude training site in Mammoth Lakes, where Americans can match the training environment of the Kenyans.

The Olympic training center features state-of-the art amenities, such as an all-weather track and sports medicine center. Athletes routinely undergo blood testing to identify deficiencies that may slow runners. Nearby are miles of cross-country trails that stare off to the mountaintops of Mexico, allowing uninterrupted training and tranquillity.

Runners follow restored training methods used so successfully by Americans in the 1970s and ‘80s, mainly structured group training and an increase in volume and tempo, Larsen said.

“We’re raising the bar,” he said. “The training went back to what we were doing in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We got away from that a little bit.”

The heavy training has filtered down to the high school level.

Ryan Hall of Big Bear High, who some believe has more potential than Sanchez, Ritzenhein and Webb, was the second-ranked high school miler in the nation last year and won the event at the National Scholastic Outdoor Track and Field Championships last summer in 4:07.76.

“We’re trying to train like the high school guys in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Hall, who ran 4:04.24 in the 1,600 earlier this month at the Southern Section Masters meet at Cerritos College, breaking the Southern Section record.

Hall, who will run the 1,600 at the state finals this weekend in Sacramento, believes high school distance running will be in good hands once he moves on.

“We’re just getting started,” he said.

But Steve Scott, who still holds the American mile record he set 19 years ago, said U.S. distance runners are not yet ready to challenge the rest of the world without the financial backing of the running community and other sponsors.

“You’ve got to support 100 to get one,” said Scott, the track coach at Cal State San Marcos. “The key ingredient is having our athletes not having to worry about paying for rent, food or bills, just training full time.”

The New York Marathon contributes $1 from every American’s registration fee to help develop rising stars. Some have called for other major marathons, such as L.A., Boston and Chicago to follow suit. Others say it’s time to offer prize money for top American finishers, instead of just to the overall and age-group winners.

Keflezighi is doing his part to bring the sport to its level of 25 years ago.

He still keeps a faded newspaper clipping tacked to his bedroom wall.

A bold headline shouts: “Back of the Pack.” Another reads: “The Sorry State of American Distance Running.” Accompanying the story is a photograph of the start of the men’s 1,500-meter final at the 1996 Olympics. There were runners from Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Spain, Somalia, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Britain and Qatar.

What the picture didn’t show were the American men who hadn’t run fast enough to qualify.

For Keflezighi, the article epitomizes one of the lowest points in U.S. distance running. Prefontaine, Shorter, Rodgers, Salazar and Scott put U.S. distance runners on the map in the 1970s and early ‘80s. But Americans got shuffled to the rear of the pack shortly after and more than a decade later, were still somewhere on the course.

But now, there’s hope again.

Last week, while taking a noontime stroll around the training center in Chula Vista where he has lived for three years, Keflezighi reflected on his career, which has mirrored the state of American distance running.

At the 2000 Stanford Invitational he had been lapped by the Kenyans. A year later, in his American-record run, he was right on their heels.

“It’s blossoming,” he said of America’s comeback. “We’ve started taking it to another level.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

From Back in the Pack

Frank Shorter, Steve Prefontaine, Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar and Steve Scott were the leading American men when the U.S. ruled the distance-running world in the 1970s and early ‘80s. But since 1982, Americans have been gradually falling toward the back of the pack--until this year, when several records have fallen.

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U.S. RUNNERS

Billy Mills wins gold at 1964 Olympics

Frank Shorter, left, winning Olympic Marathon in 1972

Steve Prefontaine, left, holds American records at every distance between 2,000 and 10,000 meters at the time of his death in 1975.

Bill Rodgers is a four-time winner the Boston and New York City marathons between 1975-80

Alberto Salazar wins the New York Marathon three times, recording the world’s fastest time in 1982.

Steve Scott, left, sets still-standing American record in mile of 3:47.69 in 1982

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2001

Mebrahtom Keflezighi breaks 15-year-old U.S. record in 10,000 meters

Franklyn Sanchez breaks Prefontaine’s U.S. junior record in 5,000 meters

Dathan Ritzenhein runs second fastest 5,000 meters by a high school runner

U.S. finished third at world cross-country championships, best finish since 1984

Rod DeHaven finishes sixth at Boston Marathon, best U.S. finish since 1994

Alan Webb runs 3:53.43 mile, breaking 36-year-old high school record.

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INTERNATIONAL RUNNERS

Morocco’s Said Aouita runs first sub 13-minute time in 5,000 meters in 1986

Kenya’s Yobes Ondieki runs first sub 27-minute time in 10,000 meters in 1993

Kenya’s Daniel Komen runs first sub eight-minute time in two mile in 1997

Komen set a world indoor record of 7:24.90 in the 3,000 meters in 1998, breaking record set earlier in the week by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie.

Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj breaks 1500-meter and mile world records in 1998

Gebrselassie, left, breaks 5000 and 10,000-meter world records in 1998

Moroccan Khalid Khannouchi breaks marathon world record in 1999

Kenya’s Paul Tergat breaks half marathon world record in 2000

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Top 10 Olympic marathon times by U.S. men

It has been 25 years since Frank Shorter ran America’s fastest Olympic Marathon, and no U.S. runner has so much as challenged that record in the past two Olympics.

1. 2:10:46 Frank Shorter (1976)

2. 2:11:16 Don Kardong (1976)

3. 2:12:20 Frank Shorter (1972)

4. 2:13:53 Pete Pfitzinger (1984)

5. 2:14:19 Alberto Salazar (1984)

6. 2:14:44 Pete Pfitzinger (1988)

7. 2:15:21 Steve Spence (1992)

8. 2:15:23 Ed Eyestone (1992)

9. 2:15:40 Kenny Moore (1972)

10. 2:15:53 Bob Kempainen (1992

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1996 Atlanta, United States

28. 2:18:17 Keith Brantly, USA

31. 2:18:38 Bob Kempainen, USA

41. 2:20:27 Mark Coogan, USA

2000 Sydney, Australia

69. 2:30.46 Rod DeHaven, USA

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Top 10 finishes by U.S. men in Olympic marathons

Americans frequently were leaders of the pack in the early 1900s, then gradually disappeared before making a mild comeback in the ‘70s. But since 1976, the U.S. had been shut out again.

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Boston Marathon

Americans took top three sports in 1983. Bill Rodgers won four times between 1975-80. A Kenyan has won the race every year since 1991. In 1996, Kenyans finished 1-2-3-4-5.