In 1991 he competed in a high calibre one hour run contest and covered 19,820 m, while the winner Arturo Barrios set a world record.[1] Lelei set his half marathon best of 1:01:36 hours en route to winning the 1992 Humarathon Half Marathon in France.[2] In 1992 he won both the Peachtree Road Race and the Boilermaker Road Race. He was a two-time winner of the Cascade Run Off, having back-to-back wins in 1992 to 1993.[3] He also won the Lisbon Half Marathon 1993 with a time of 59:24 minutes (although the course was short).[4] His major marathon debut came at the 1993 Boston Marathon and his finishing time of 2:12:12 hours brought him fifth place overall. He ran in the New York City Marathon later that year and managed eighth.[5] He came close to his personal best at the following year's New York race, coming fourth behind Arturo Barrios with a time of 2:12:24 hours.[6]
Lelei took third place at the Paris Marathon in 1995, improving his best time to 2:11:11 hours.[7] He ran at the 1996 Boston Marathon, finishing in 2:10:11 hours for fifth place. He focused more on marathon races in his late career. He returned to defend his title at the 1996 Berlin Marathon and reached the podium with a third-place finish and his second sub-2:10 clocking of 2:09:49 hours.[8] He was third at the 1997 Berlin Marathon, recording a time of 2:08:00 hours,[9]
