Ebook: Sub 4:00 Alan Webb and the quest for the fastest mile

For more than three decades, not one American schoolboy had run a sub-4:00 mile. Then, in January 2001, Alan Webb clocked a 3:59.86 mile, the fastest indoor U.S. high school mile ever. Just a few months later, the young track star achieved legendary status: he ran a 3:53.46 mile—a full 2 seconds faster than former record holder Jim Ryun. Everywhere Webb was hailed as "America's Next Great Miler."

In Sub 4:00, noted track writer Chris Lear follows Webb to college at the University of Michigan. As we witness Webb's freshman track season—watching him struggle with injuries, interpersonal conflicts, the politics of the collegiate track world, and his own aspirations to become the best miler ever—we get a behind-the-scenes view of the life of a promising young athlete.