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Jump Start: The Second Reinvention of Alan Webb

Published by
DyeStat.com   Jul 21st 2017, 6:38pm
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Jump Start: The Second Reinvention of Alan Webb

A story by Dave Devine for DyeStat

On the evening of June 27, 2001, talk show host David Letterman welcomed his typically disparate mix of guests to the Ed Sullivan Theater for that night’s taping of the Late Show.

There was comic actor Marlon Wayans, promoting the release of his upcoming film, Scary Movie 2.

A promising band named Coldplay, already famous in the United Kingdom, but relatively unknown in the United States, on hand to play “Trouble” from their debut album, Parachutes.

And, perhaps most incongruously, Alan Webb, an 18-year-old kid from Reston, Va., who—exactly one month earlier—had set a national high school record in the mile, running 3 minutes, 53.43 seconds at the Prefontaine Classic to shatter Jim Ryun’s 36-year-old prep record of 3:55.3.

 If the kid is intimidated by the company that evening, it doesn’t show. Taking the stage in a dapper suit, easing comfortably into the guest chair alongside Letterman’s iconic desk, he engages in a solid eight minutes of banter with the quirky host. 

He cracks a few jokes that land, needles Dave about being recently mistaken for a late night rival, and fields a series of questions that only serve to betray Letterman’s woeful, if unsurprising, lack of familiarity with competitive running. 

After confirming, early on, that his guest is planning to attend college “at the, uh, Michigan,” Letterman circles back to the topic of post-graduation plans one minute into the interview, primarily as a means of bridging to another line of questioning. 

“Well,” Letterman says, over a smattering of applause, “I think you made the right choice to go to college, don’t you?” 

It’s a throwaway line. A glib transition. An uncle at a graduation party, affirming the smart path his nephew has elected to follow. 

“Yeah,” the kid agrees, studying the coffee mug at the edge of Letterman’s desk. “I’m looking forward to it. You know, obviously, you’ve got to get an education. I’m not going to be able to run forever.” 

In the moment, it’s a response that seems to match the flippancy of the question. A platitude you might hear from a guidance counselor. Or your parents. Something to keep the interview flowing. 

And sure enough, a moment later, Letterman is on to other things — How did this running thing begin? What appeals to you about it? When did all this nutty stuff start? 

And the kid, he’s 18. The fastest four-lapper in high school history. Faster than the legendary Ryun. Even if he suspects that his career will have its mortal limits, even if that reality has been ingrained by closer confidantes than the late night host at his elbow, there’s no reason to spend time contemplating that now. 

Certainly not in the flow of this interview. 

There are more pressing questions to consider about prom, and the inadvisability of starting blocks when it comes to distance races, and the relative challenges of being a high school track celebrity. 

By the end of the eight-minute appearance, no one will remember the brief exchange that occurred in the opening minute. 

It is only later — maybe 16 years later — when that exchange gathers greater import. 

When the once throwaway line seems, in the current context, inescapably prescient. 

I’m not going to be able to run forever.

 

*    *    *

 

Hayden Island wasn’t their first choice. 

When Alan and Julia Webb — married six-and-a-half years, with two young daughters — decided, in the wake of Alan’s retirement from competitive athletics, to start a mobile truck repair business, they didn’t intend to tuck it away on a 1.7-square mile spit of land in the middle of the Columbia River. 

Hadn’t planned to launch their venture on an island with a single, congested entry point. 

Exit 308. 

The last Oregon off-ramp from Interstate 5, before that beleaguered freeway angles north across a narrow, outdated bridge into Vancouver, Wash. 

Follow that exit and you’ll find a rebuilt Target superstore. An assortment of big box retailers on life-support. Two mattress outlets. An RV park. A Holiday Inn Express. A shuttered riverfront hotel, wrapped in a chain-link fence. Huggy Bear’s Cupboards, offering fine, hand-crafted cabinetry. 

And at the far end of the developed portion of the island, a series of low-slung, industrial buildings known as Hayden Island Business Park. 

A row of nondescript storefronts with matching white signs, one of which reads: 

Elite OnSite Fleet Services. 

In early 2017, when they began scouting locations for their nascent start-up, Julia and Alan didn’t know a great deal about the truck repair business, but they’d gleaned enough to realize this wasn’t the ideal place to start one. 

“We didn’t think it would be hard to find garage space,” Julia says now, “but Portland has been a hot commodity for getting a small business going.” 

All the boom neighborhoods are south and west of here — just follow the construction cranes. Division Street and Slabtown and South Waterfront. 

Alan and Julia know that. 

The space and the sprawl are out beyond city limits, in places like Beaverton and Hillsboro. 

They looked there as well. It would have been a lot more convenient. 

But they were playing catch-up on the learning curve. 

They had the misfortune of launching a business shortly after Oregon legalized marijuana, which stoked a landgrab for viable commercial space in an already-tight real estate market. 

They bumped up against regulations blocking the use of oil in rented garages, a considerable obstacle for a company that specializes in servicing trucks. 

They had dreams and plans and available capital, and they encountered restrictive clauses, exorbitant leases and difficult landlords. 

So they arrived here, on Hayden Island. 

They’ve made peace with that. Come to accept this as a place of compromise, but also possibility. 

A modest, sparsely furnished storefront with a desk and a few chairs and an open MacBook laptop. A pair of erasable whiteboards still waiting to be hung, scribbled with upcoming appointments. Small piles of paperwork; thumbtacked children’s artwork; photos of their daughters, Joanie and Paula; hand-printed signs, encouraging safety. 

And in the back, a twin-bay garage with swept concrete floors, stacks of tires bound for U-Haul trucks, and two rolling doors that aren’t quite tall enough to permit semis to pass underneath. 

Compromise, but also potential. 

Success here doesn’t require foot traffic or curb appeal. 

Most of the work involves driving out from the premises, repairing vehicles that have broken down on the road or require on-site fleet servicing. 

Here, on this island with a single entrance, something new might grow. 

An innovation might emerge. 

Not another comeback; that window has closed. Not another grafting of one athletic pursuit onto another, a repurposing of limbs and lungs for one more shot at glory. No more pulling the puzzle apart, only to reassemble it in a hopefully novel way. 

This is an entirely different thing. A whole new direction. 

A reinvention. 

Alan and Julia: Co-founders. The President and the CEO. 

“It’s not going to be perfect,” Alan says, covering the desk while Julia chats with a mechanic, “so you’ve kind of just got to start. And that was part of the mentality here: This isn’t exactly perfect, but it won’t be perfect, so we’ve just got to go.”

 

*    *    *

 

Five months after launching Elite OnSite Fleet Services, Alan and Julia have developed answers to most of the questions they receive. 

They’ve learned how to field the industry inquiries. Know how to concisely describe the services they offer. Which jargon to use when customers call with technical questions. Which queries they can answer themselves, which ones to kick to their mechanics. 

But the question they still wrestle with the most, the one they remain challenged to articulate in a cohesive way, is the one that’s perhaps most basic: 

Why a truck repair business? 

Why would two people with a background in competitive running (Julia competes for the Bowerman Track Club, with her own portfolio of running accomplishments), and no experience servicing trucks, jump into the world of spark plugs and socket wrenches? 

Julia WebbJulia takes the first swing at explaining. 

She describes how they considered a variety of franchise-like possibilities, and found that the pitch from Fleet Services International appealed to her and Alan’s shared sense of motivation and challenge, a commitment to hard work both had ingrained as athletes. 

“They talked to us a lot,” she notes, “saying you don’t have to be a mechanic to be successful, that they’ll give you the background and the tools. We wanted to do something where we had more control, where we were able to be the business owners and our own bosses.” 

She knows that doesn’t fully explain things. 

After several more attempts, she hands the question off to her husband. 

“My brother and I had discussed being entrepreneurs,” Alan continues, “and this idea just popped up, doing research online. We found it on a franchise Web site, so even though it’s not classified as a franchise, it’s still along that avenue.” 

He pauses for a moment, considering where to go next. 

“The automotive industry is something that I kind of liked…” 

He trails off again. 

Still grasping for the one-minute explanation, the elevator pitch for this new venture. 

“Fixing trucks, you know, it’s…something different. I wanted to do something that wasn’t running related. Learn something new, get into a different field.” 

When Julia jumps back in, it’s to offer an abridged version of the running-related list they considered before arriving at Elite OnSite. 

“Coaching was one of the things we threw out there, and we even looked into a couple of openings, but they weren’t in Portland.” 

Already an established coach, Julia hoped they might find a college that would hire them both — a package deal — but she was also reticent to relocate after an itinerate lifestyle that found them moving frequently, especially late in Alan’s career. 

As Alan crisscrossed the country seeking the best coaching fit for his injury-riddled twilight years, Julia was seeking a measure of stability. 

Her own traction in the midst of transition. 

“We had just been moving so much,” she says. “It was hard. Especially for me to do anything career-wise. We went from Virginia to Portland to Virginia to Portland to Arizona to Portland. I was thinking, ‘How am I supposed to get myself established?’”    

After landing back in Portland, they were in search of stability. Something to call their own, but also something that might offer the necessary gravity. 

They had their daughters to consider. A familiar daycare. A close circle of friends. 

“I was immediately drained by the thought of moving our family again,” Julia says. “We’d just bought a house...” 

So, they checked with Nike. 

Although Alan was no longer a sponsored athlete — hadn’t been since 2014 — he and Julia both had strong connections on the Beaverton campus. They thought there might be an opportunity with the company Alan had endorsed since the beginning of his career. 

But the footwear giant was in a hiring freeze. 

“It seemed like a dead end,” Julia says. “He could have possibly gotten a position if he’d been willing to wait, but that just wasn’t exciting to us.” 

It becomes clear, as she narrates the path of this decision, that the storefront on Hayden Island has been born, at least in part, from the difficult, necessary questions most couples eventually confront. 

How long to nurture one career, or one passion, at the expense of another? How can both of us thrive? What will bring my partner the greatest happiness? When is my time? 

“We started looking into what we could do that would be our own thing,” Julia says, “and we ended up here.” 

She acknowledges that there’s still some handwringing and uncertainty, the occasional sleepless night when Alan, in particular, returns to the ‘Why’ question in his head, but just as quickly she’s upbeat again, pointing out that the longer she spends on the job, the more comfortable she becomes. 

“We were in the running industry for so long, that was really all we were. That’s where all our value was, and I think it’s cool we’re able to take the skills we learned there — the hard work, the discipline, the drive — and transfer them over to a different industry.”

 

*    *    * 

Less than two years into an effort to reinvent himself as a triathlete, Alan was rounding the final turn of the bike segment at the Dallas CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup when he collided with a fellow cyclist who swerved unexpectedly. 

The subsequent crash marked the final act in an athletic career he’d fought valiantly to prolong. 

“That was the end,” he acknowledges now. “I was on the outside looking in at making an Olympic team, which had been my goal. I’d put a timeline on it, saying that if I made an Olympic team, or if I got a contract that would support my family within two years, then I would keep doing it.” 

That June 6, 2015 tumble left Alan with a fractured scapula and two broken ribs. 

“Number one,” he says, “it was not a fun experience. I’d been in a couple of smaller ‘crashes’ you might call them, but on this one, I broke bones. It was the last straw that said, ‘This is not my path.’” 

Alan glances down for a second — perhaps mulling the broken bones, the last straw, the abandoned path — then continues. 

“But it was okay. It was like a weight had been lifted off me.” 

The fastest American miler in history hung up the triathlon gear, and by extension, his racing spikes. He reassessed and refocused. Completed his economics degree at Portland State University, adding a minor in business. Began planning the next steps with Julia. 

But if walking away from endurance athletics, with the incumbent expectations and scrutiny that had dogged him for over a decade, felt like a liberation, then starting a business has brought its own distinct pressures. 

He’s no longer the free agent whose stock rises and falls on the strength of athletic performances. Gone are the days when he’s able to support himself and his family on his preternatural track talent, however tenuous that might have been. 

“With running,” he says, “there’s a little bit of self-centeredness to it, because it’s just you. When the gun goes off, nobody can help you. The coach can’t help you. Your wife — your kids — can’t help you. There’s no timeouts…it’s all on you. I learned how to shut everything out as a runner and just focus. It’s just you and the race. Which is…very different than this.” 

There are now two Elite OnSite trucks on the road. 

Two mechanics on the payroll. 

Employee #1, a talented technician named JR, who’s been indispensable since the first day, has been joined by a second hire, Michael. 

All good news, but it means more families to feed, more people dependent on the paychecks that only success will deliver. 

“That’s the overwhelming part,” Alan says. “It’s a big weight to carry.” 

Across the desk, his wife flashes a knowing smile. 

“That’s why I’m the chill side of this business,” Julia says, brightly. “The one who reassures him — It’s okay, Alan. 

Alan can only nod at his wife’s assessment. 

“One of my big weaknesses,” he allows, “something that I’ve learned, is that I’ve got a lot of anxiety that I need to work on. What I don’t want to do is put that on other people. I’m trying to learn how to not let that affect the people here.” 

If there’s a secret to the early success that Elite OnSite is experiencing, it might be this: the give and take of a couple with the self-awareness to acknowledge their own flaws and foibles. 

“We’re almost opposites,” Julia says. “The strengths that he has are my weaknesses, and vice versa, so we work really well together in that regard.” 

Alan received plenty of advice from well-meaning acquaintances about the pitfalls of entering into business with a spouse, but he says it’s exactly what he needed. 

“I wanted that. I craved that, as a way to spend time with her,” he says, “and I thought she’d be really good at it, and she is. She can walk into a room and just go.” 

Describing his own role, it’s clear Alan would rather be the spark plug than the engine. 

“What I wanted was the power to empower. I’ll be the lowest person here, the lowest rung, and let everyone else be elevated. I want to hire people who are better than me at what they do. That’s what we saw in JR, and now in Michael.” 

He leans back in the chair and glances through the window at the trucks parked out front. 

After a quick, appreciative gaze around the office, he extends his arms. 

“We’re a team,” he says, “and this is how it works.” 

His sweeping gesture suggests the office, yes, and the garage out back, but also the comfortable dynamic between him and Julia. The trucks parked out front. The mechanics who drive those trucks. 

So many pieces to this new puzzle. 

The white boards scrawled with appointments. The cell phone that keeps buzzing. The invoices waiting to be mailed. The foam roller in the corner. The photo of their daughters on the wall. The crayon drawings created by those daughters. 

The messiness of life. 

This is how it works. 

*    *    *

 Alan Webb mile record

A portion of Alan’s morning was spent packing for a trip. 

He’s flying to Philadelphia, set to appear at a running camp in Delaware, then off to a book signing at a running store in Washington, D.C. 

Familiar territory for him. 

Home turf. 

There’ll be a chance to reconnect with some good friends. Hit up some old haunts. Hopefully, an opportunity to catch up with his former coach, Scott Raczko, if he can pin him down. 

He’s well aware that the travel dovetails with a major career anniversary, but contends it’s just a coincidence. 

Ten years ago, Alan set the still-standing American mile record at a small meet in Brasschaat, Belgium, running 3:46.91 to best a Steve Scott mark of 3:47.69 that stood for 25 years. 

No one in the world has run faster in the decade since that auspicious July 21, 2007 performance, which ranks Webb as the No. 8 all-time global performer. 

It was the crowning achievement of Alan’s career. 

A moment he describes as akin to summiting Everest. 

Still, he says, “We don’t have any big plans to throw a gala or whatever. We might all get together for dinner, share some memories.” 

When he thinks about that race now, he admits surprise at how quickly the years have passed. 

“It does feel like it’s gone by pretty fast,” he says. “I just look back with a lot of gratitude. For the guys who came before me — Jim Ryun and Steve Scott, the two guys who had it immediately before me. I’m just grateful to be in that club. 

“I did the best I could. It was a short window to be at that level. But you know, way up on Everest…there’s not a lot of oxygen up there, and I guess I needed to come down and take a breath. And now I’m down here, breathing.” 

Down here, for now, is the modest office. The nondescript business park. 

Hayden Island. 

It’s a running camp and a book signing. 

But it’s also the diesel mechanic courses he’ll be taking when he comes back. The work that will be waiting when he returns. 

He’s a man stepping from the lingering shadow of one career into the bright promise of another. 

He’s that boy on Letterman, all grown up. 

I’m not going to be able to run forever. 

In the end, pressed about his estimable legacy, he gently suggests that whatever inspiration he might have provided American distance runners in 2001, and again in 2007, might actually resemble what he and Julia are trying to do now, with their business. 

“It all takes time,” Alan says. “Maybe a seed was planted then. Kids coming up saw that race, and it took time for them to train, to adjust. Maybe it took 10 years.” 

He pauses for one last glance around at what he and Julia are building.  

“It’s the same thing with a business like this. You plant the seed, and over time you see it blossom… blossom…blossom.”



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