Lehmkuhle Won't Run at Boston After All

Team USA Minnesota's Jason Lehmkuhle won't be on the starting line for the 113th running of the Boston Marathon on April 20 after all.

Lehmkuhle (pictured) had committed to the race last fall and was announced as part of Boston's elite field in mid-February, just as he was reconsidering his fitness for the race.

"I was really excited about going back there," Lehmkuhle told DtB. "I injured my achilles in late December, and although it wasn't serious, my training in January and the first part of February had to be scaled back."

Lehmkuhle pulled out of the USA Half Marathon Championships in January but ran a PR 44:09 for 8th-place at the USA 15K Championships in March, his 2009 debut.

" ... I looked at how many weeks I had left and how little actual 'marathon' training I had done, and I decided that there just wasn't enough time for me to be ready to run at a high level," the 5th-place finisher at the 2007 Olympic Marathon Trials said. "Boston is not a course I think you want to go into 80 percent prepared. I made the decision to pull out and focus on some other spring races."

Lehmkuhle, who raced in Washington, DC at the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile last weekend, plans to race the Lilac Bloomsday 12K in Spokane, Washington on May 3 and the USA 25k Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 9.

Photo by Victor Sailer/Photo Run.