Lehmkuhle Wins Ohme 30K in Japan

Team USA Minnesota's Jason Lehmkuhle became the first American in 28 years to win Tokyo's challenging Ohme 30K Road Race with his victory there on Sunday.

Lehmkuhle ran the challenging course in 1:32:08 -- sub-5:00 pace for 18.6 miles -- edging Japan's Toyoyuki Abe by one second.

There's a report on the race and a photo of Lehmkuhle sprinting to the finish, HERE, on the English language Japan Running News web-site.

(The official web-site for the race is HERE, but, alas, it's written in Japanese.)

Greg Meyer, the last American champion at the Boston Marathon in 1983, was the last American to win the Ohme 30K prior to Lehmkuhle, doing so the same year. Some 15,000 runners ran in the 30K event and another 5,000 participated in the accompanying 10 km, according to a Team USA Minnesota media release.

“I was with the lead pack from the beginning, occasionally leading,"Lehmkuhle said. "I was wary of the course though, and I didn’t want to press early on. I made a little move at the turnaround then another at around 22 km up a big hill that broke up the remaining pack of five. I had a little gap by 23 or 24K, but Toyoyuki Abe caught me at the 25K and we ran the rest of the way in together. I had just enough left to get him by a second at the line."

“The course was definitely difficult, more so than I had expected,” Lehmkuhle said. “It’s an out-and-back that rises about 250 feet from the start to the turnaround point, and there are a couple of big hills through the middle. It was a very nice day for running, about 50 degrees, and cloudy with a little breeze. The crowd was tremendous and lined the street the whole way."

Lehmkuhle is scheduled to run the New York City Half Marathon on March 20 and then the London Marathon on April 17.

“I think [Ohme] displayed that the London preparations are going well," Lehmkuhle acknowledged.