Connecticut DOT worker qualifies for Olympic Marathon Trials

Updated Feb 9, 2016

A Connecticut Department of Transportation engineer is proving he can do more than just design roads. He can dominate them as well.

Jonas Hampton was already qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials in L.A. Feb. 13 before he’d ever even raced in an official marathon, according to the Hartford Courant. But when the time came to race in the Hartford Marathon back in October, he proved he was ready for it by finishing first with a time of 2:15:58.

Another 58 seconds faster and he would have earned the Olympic Trials “A” qualifying standard and gotten a free trip to L.A. for the trials.

The DOT worker locked down an invite to the trials last year in the U.S. Half Marathon national championships. Most days he’s using computer models to plan out road repairs and other projects. And as soon as he’s done planning the roads, he’s hitting them, running upwards of 120 miles a week during his training.

His coworkers at ConnDOT are behind him, calculating that Hampton averaged more than 11 miles per hour during his marathon, according to Runner’s World. The speed left some of his fellow ConnDOT employees thinking it might be too fast with comments like “I don’t even drive that fast.”

Hampton is preparing for the Olympic Marathon Trials now, but said he feels like this year might be more of a learing experience.

“Obviously [my eventual goal is] to make the Olympic team, but realistically I want to make a U.S. travel team — whether it’s the marathon team for the world championships, or for the half [marathon],” Hampton told the Hartford Courant. “That’s something I want to do at some point.”

He’ll continue to work full-time for ConnDOT, but the training and 40-hour work weeks can take a toll. He’s not sure what his plans are after the trials, but he’s going to keep running toward his goals.

“I’m trying to weigh the options of what I want to accomplish. I’m not going to stay in Connecticut forever. It depends on how L.A. goes. If I PR again, if I run smart, get a high enough placement, it opens up some more doors for me. Then I’ll weigh what I want to do. I don’t have any plans currently to leave, but I have goals I want to achieve.”