For Once, a Shot in Arm Track Needs

He went for a morning run along the river.

“Out there with the other joggers,” said his coach, Scott Raczko.

He ate a tuna sandwich at Subway for lunch.

“Four out of five days here, he did Subway,” Raczko said.

He signed autographs until just before stepping onto the track.

“When it got too close to the race, he was like, ‘Hey, can I catch you when I come back?’ ” Raczko said.

A little more than 3 1/2 glorious minutes later, Alan Webb indeed came back, blowing away the competition, blowing the grime off U.S. track, blowing up the hopes for this country’s first Olympic 1,500-meter medal in 36 years.

No wonder he screamed.

“It was just me letting out my emotions,” he said later of his post-race celebration. “A primal scream.”

A primal sport. A primal victory. And, now, an ordinary guy ready for primal time.

On the final day of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, Webb not only won the 1,500 meters, but about halfway through, he began sprinting so hard that he won it by about two days.

Said 11th-place finisher Michael Stember: “He exploded. He blew up.”

Said second-place finisher Charlie Gruber: “I’ve never had anybody make a move on me like that.”

Webb, 21, won the race in 3:36:13, more than two seconds ahead of the field, and now the move is to Athens, where he is poised to become an Olympic cover boy.

Even with a receding hair line, a skinny, 140-pound frame and a dorky smile.

Maybe because of all that.

“This is a great sport, and maybe something like this can make people stop talking about the other stuff, and realize that there’s lots of folks who will be at Athens doing things the right way,” Webb said.

In other words, the only way this kid is on the juice is if he’s carrying oranges in that schoolboy backpack he toted out of the stadium Sunday.

While others here have used syringes, Webb looks like one.

While others are into designer steroids, Webb is into a designer tattoo: Chinese letters that fill up his narrow biceps with a word that is translated as “Courage.”

“A good clean athlete ... no real secrets ... he just goes out there and runs,” said Raczko who, not coincidentally, was also Webb’s high school coach.

Three years ago, he ran into the headlines when, as a Virginia prep, he broke Jim Ryun’s 36-year-old high school record in the mile.

Then he inexplicably disappeared, struggling for two seasons, dropping out of a celebrated spot at the University of Michigan, returning to his high school coach, laboring in the outside lanes until finally finding himself this summer.

“The last couple of years have not been stellar,” he said. “But what I did today erases all that. It’s made me realize that no matter how bad things get, there’s always a tomorrow.”

He paused.

“Unless I die in my sleep.”

The plain-speaking Webb will become the worldwide Webb again with news of this victory, and just listen.

Finally, folks will say, America will medal in what America does best.

America jogs, right? Nowhere in the world is there a larger population of people who daily run the mile, correct?

Then how come the last time an American won an Olympic medal in the 1,500 -- the metric mile -- was in 1968, when Ryun finished second?

How come America hasn’t won a gold medal in this event in 96 years?

How come no American woman has won any medal in the event, ever?

“The only answer I can give you is, no answer,” Webb said.

Then he thought of another one.

“The answer is for Alan Webb to run his best against as many competitors as he can,” he said.

That answer is as good as any.

While Webb’s time was only the 17th-best in the world this year, he’s the best hope America has had since Steve Scott two decades ago.

The U.S. 1,500 roster being about as deep as the Laker bench, Webb is one of only two American men who have even met the qualifying standard time for the Olympics.

If he does make it to the finals, he will be going against tested veterans from nations where, unlike here, the instant gratification of the sprints is not as prized as the lengthy struggle of endurance.

“He’s got all the tools for a medal, sure,” Stember said. “It’s all about how intimidated he will be.”

Webb ran toward the front of the pack Sunday, but it was still tight at the halfway point when he suddenly, inexplicably took off.

It was a better sprint than any of the sprints. It was a better vault than anyone with a pole. It was trash talk without talking, showboating without the show, and now the act moves to immortal Athens and that eternal question.

Are there Subways there?

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.