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Jason
Lehmkuhle is part of the strong field that will contest the USA
Men's 8K Championships on March 26 on Randall's Island in New York
City. A member of Team USA Minnesota, the 27-year-old Missouri native
will bring a high level of fitness to the race. He started 2005
with a 1:04:08 PR to place third at the USA Men's Half-Marathon
Championships in January. In February, he placed fifth in the 12K
at the USA Cross Country Championships, and qualified for this month's
World Cross Country Championships, to be held in St. Etienne/St.
Galmier, France, the weekend before the 8K on Randall's Island.
A
2000 graduate of Drake University, Lehmkuhle has an impressive range.
Last year, he placed 10th in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in
a PR of 2:16:27. In the spring, he also set PRs of 13:38 for 5,000m
and 28:26 for 10,000m before injury cut short his competitive year.
Lehmkuhle
lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, although, as he notes below, he has
an out when the state's 10,000 lakes have been frozen over seemingly
forever.
MensRacing.com:
So, you made the team for World Cross. Are you going?
Jason Lehmkuhle:
I am absolutely going to World Cross. I'm excited about it. It's
my first world team. Actually, it's my first time out of the country.
Well, I've been to Canada, but that doesn't really count.
MR:
Do you mean first time out of the country as a runner, or first
time out of the country?
JL:
In both senses. It will be my first transatlantic plane trip, my
first time to Europe as a person.
MR:
With it being your first international team, what are your goals
for the race?
JL:
That's a good question. Having never been in any international cross
country meet, much less the World Cross Championship, I'm not sure
what to expect. I know the level of competition there is as steep
as any race in the world. My only goal is to run tough and smart
and see what happens.
MR:
So you're going to make your first overseas trip and run in one
of the world's toughest races, and then come back and a week later
run the 8K championships.
JL:
It's going to be an interesting week. I'm hoping I can handle the
travel alright. I know in the last few years, a lot of the cross
country team [members have] done that — come back and run the
8K. They've had mixed results with that, I guess because people
have different reactions to the travel and time change. Racing the
8K was always in my plan for this year. I always want to do that
race.
MR:
Why?
JL:
I think it's a great race. For me this year, it works well, because
I'm sort of building up for the Boston Marathon. At that time, I'll
be starting to sharpen. It will be a good test of my fitness.
They've
really done a great job with the race — I think it's one of the most
competitive races in the country. It's at a time of year and it's
a distance where you get a lot of guys mixing it up. Guys like Tim
Broe and Jonathon Riley are moving up from 3K or 5K on the track,
and some like myself who are maybe focused on the marathon are moving
down.
MR:
You were 13th last year, right?
JL:
Yeah. I think I can improve on that this year. The thing last year
was that it was only four or five weeks after the Olympic Marathon
Trials. It maybe was just me and Meb [Keflezighi] coming back from
a good run at the Trials. Certainly, by that point, you're running
and training again, but four or five weeks after a marathon, you're
not really race sharp.
MR:
Someone forgot to tell Meb [who won the race] that.
JL:
Yeah, exactly.
MR:
Are you surprised at the 8K when you beat guys who could destroy
you on the track, or do you kinda take it for granted that you should
beat them?
JL:
I don't assume that that's how it should be, that I'll be beating
these guys from the track, but I certainly know I have a better
opportunity at 8K, particularly on the roads. It sort of levels
the playing field. A lot of it depends on where they are in their
training at that time of year. They're probably doing decent volume,
so moving up to 8K shouldn't be that big of a deal for them. But
do I think I have a much better chance at beating them on the roads?
Absolutely.
MR:
What have you been told about the new course this year?
JL:
I haven't heard all the specifics, but I know it's out of Central
Park. What I've heard is we start on the track, then there's a middle
section on the track, and then we finish on the track. It should
be a flatter, faster course. I think that's great. I mean, I loved
it in the park last year, but it's going to be great to see, with
the great field we'll have, how fast those guys can go without the
hills.
MR:
Will the 8K be your last race before Boston?
JL:
Yeah, I'll really probably do nothing else before Boston. It's what,
three weeks to go after the 8K. I'll just be sharpening. I may do
something low-key here in town, but the 8K, against that great field,
will be my last big test.
MR:
When did you start planning for Boston?
JL:
We started looking at it in the fall, then decided for sure as my
training progressed this winter. I was planning on doing the ING
New York City Marathon last year, but I had injury problems going
back to the track trials. So I'm kinda chomping at the bit to get
into a marathon. Boston, timing-wise, works out well — you
can run a good one in the spring, then build back up for the fall,
maybe another marathon, or maybe I'll aim for the World Half-Marathon
Championships in the fall.
MR:
What was your injury?
JL:
Iliotibial band tendonitis. I'm definitely injury-prone. Well, everybody
at this level...at this level, it's a constant battle to keep injuries
away, but I feel I have more than my share. The IT thing was really
annoying — I could run through it up to a point, but no quality, and
I couldn't string any real training together. We eventually just
decided it was in my best interest to shut things down and not do
New York. You don't want to start a marathon at only 80 or 90 percent
fitness.
MR:
So you stopped running entirely for awhile?
JL:
Yeah, probably about a month off in the fall, and then I built back
up really from scratch. It's been going really well. I was third
in the [USA] Half-Marathon Championship in January, and then fifth
at cross nationals.
MR:
So what are your goals for Boston?
JL:
If the conditions are good, I think I'm in sub-2:14 shape. But the
weather there...the last few years, it's been very warm. You have
to go in not locked into a time goal, but set on racing well and
placing as well as you can.
MR:
Not to dwell on the negative, but why do you think you're injury-prone?
JL:
I don't know. I think some people just have that tendency, whether
it be biomechanics or body type. I guess I'm just unlucky that way.
We all in general at this level...you're constantly putting yourself
on that fine edge of being at peak fitness and teetering over that
line. I probably have erred too much on the wrong side of that fine
edge. That's something that's hard to beat out of me — I feel like
it's part of my make-up. I want to push that edge and see how fast
and how fit I can get.
MR:
Do you think it's because you're doing more than most people at
your level, or that you have some underlying weakness that makes
you more susceptible given how much you have to do to be at your
level?
JL:
Hmm, that's a good question. I don't know. I don't think I'm doing
significantly more in terms of quality and quantity. I'm doing 120
to 140 miles a week fairly regularly. That's pretty standard for
someone with a marathon focus. Am I doing something that puts me
at significantly more risk than other people like me? Probably not.
Have I pushed that fine line some times? Certainly. Where I am now,
with the group here, I've made a commitment to put off my regular
life to do the running thing, to train and pursue my career as a
runner. Do I have some regrets about how I've handled the training
in the past? Certainly. Am I going to back off precipitously and
err on the conservative side and perhaps not reach my potential?
Absolutely not.
MR:
You've been with Team USA Minnesota since 2001. How did you get
hooked up with them?
JL:
I was one of the original members. My coach at Drake heard through
the grapevine that this group in Minnesota was being put together.
He got me in touch with the right people and I applied and I got
in, which was very cool. After school, I was working full-time in
an ad agency. That wasn't going very well in terms of being a serious
runner. It's been great for me here, really an ideal situation.
MR:
How often do you run with others from the group?
JL:
Certainly not every day. We'll meet for workouts a couple, three
times a week. Other regular runs, recovery runs, we occasionally
get together. I would say we run together not seven days out of
seven, but maybe five days out of seven.
MR:
Do you do the marathon-specific stuff by yourself?
JL:
That's a difference from last year. Matt Gabrielson, Luke Watson,
they're obviously more focused on 3K, 5K, even 10K on the track.
Chad Johnson joined us in August or September, and we've done more
workouts together, which has been great.
MR:
You just got back from winter training in Arizona? Was this your
first time escaping the joys of winter in Minnesota?
JL:
No, actually I've gone there each of the last four years. I've got
a buddy there who's also my agent, Brett Schumacher. He lives in
Phoenix and opens up his place to me and lets me crash there for
a couple of months and get out of the sub-zero temperatures and
ice. Phoenix in January, I think, is one of the best and probably
[most] underrated places to train in the country. There are lots
of trails, and the weather is ideal.
MR:
You're really there for a couple of months?
JL:
Yeah, this time I went there around mid December, just before the
holidays, and just came back. Luke Watson was there most of January,
so that was good.
MR:
Do you have other people to train with there? Any locals?
JL:
Yes and no. I do some running with a club Brett has there, the Bandidos.
But really, most of it is by myself.
MR:
Is it hard to come back? It's got to still be pretty wintry in Minnesota
right now.
JL:
Yes, it is. I'm not native to Minnesota. The winters here are harsh!
You hear talk about how all those great marathoners from Minnesota
would train through the winter, how it's supposed to make you tough.
I'm a softie. I can't handle it. If you give me the option of staying
here and toughing it out through the elements or going someplace
nice, I'll go elsewhere. But others in the group stay here and do
just fine with it.
MR:
Are you ever in touch with any of the old school guys there from
Minnesota?
JL:
A little here and there. Have I met Dick Beardsley, Garry Bjorklund,
Steve Hoag? Yeah. But I can't say I'm in regular touch with those
guys. We certainly hear all the stories about them, and we're training
in the same places, which is pretty cool. There's a great tradition
here, and they really embrace the runners who did a lot in the '70s
and '80s, even the '90s, with [Bob] Kempanien.
MR:
You mentioned working in an ad agency. Do you do any freelancing?
JL:
Absolutely. My major out of college was graphic design. It's something
I love. It's nice to be able to pick up some work. I'm usually working
on two or three projects a month. It's good to keep my skills current
while I'm pursuing my running. It's really an ideal situation, certainly
a lot better than before. When I was at the ad agency, it was pretty
demanding, and really deadline-driven. If work comes through the
pipeline, then you've got to finish it. I stayed there a lot until
10:00 or 11:00 at night, sometimes 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.
That's not the way to go if you're trying to make running your number-one
priority.
That's
why the opportunity I have here is so great. What's happening here
with our group, and other groups around the country, it's definitely
a reason why US distance running is doing better in the last five
years. There are a lot more people who can continue to run because
the club facilitates making it a little easier to do and still live
comfortably.
MR:
As a creative sort, do you ever find the Twin Cities' music scene
a distraction?
JL:
I wouldn't say it's a distraction, but yeah, there is a great live
music scene here. Do we go out and see some shows? Yes. Am I out
every night? No. I think, all around, the Twin Cities is a great
[place]. It's big enough that there are lots of opportunities to
do stuff, like see good live music, but it's not so big that to
get from one side to the other is a hassle. And the people here
are great. What you hear about 'Minnesota nice' is real. I think
it's one of the best running communities in the country, both in
terms of the depth of runners at the local level and in the whole
community's passion for the sport.
(Interview
conducted March 7, 2005, and posted March 10, 2005)
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