Sunday was a very good day for area runners competing in the major races outside St. Louis. Here are a few highlights:

St. Charles native Jason Lehmkuhle finished second in the Houston Half-Marathon, in 1 hour 2 minutes 32 seconds, 11 seconds behind winner James Carney. The race doubled as the USA Half-Marathon Championships. A mile and two-mile state champion at Duchesne High, Lehmkuhle has trained for six years with Team USA Minnesota in Minneapolis. Lehmkuhle finished fifth in the Olympic Marathon Trials in November and is the second U.S. alternate for the team in Beijing.

Other performances of note:

• Magnus Holmstrom of Jefferson City finished 29^th in 1:06:54.
• Serena Burla of Columbia, Mo., finished third in the women’s half-marathon, in 1:12:22. Burla, racing under her maiden name of Ramsey, won the Spirit of St. Louis half-marathon in April.
• Jeremy Hammer of St . Louis finished 61^st overall in 1:19:31 in the P.F. Chang’s Rock’n’Roll half-marathon. Heidi Gotway finished 28^th among women in 1:31:13. More than 20,200 runners finished the race.
• St. Louisan Gerald Zavorsky finished 65th in 2:49:47 and Steve Chorma of O’Fallon, Ill., finished 81st in the accompanying marathon, in 2:54:14.
• Carol Wright, 48, won her age group at the Chang marathon with a time of 3:15:49. I hope Carol forgives me for posting her age. With a first-place finish, I don’t think she’ll mind.