Monroe’s Thomas Hlad readies for Boston Marathon run

MONROE — Running and running and running — Thomas Hlad has logged a lot of miles in his 30 years of life.

And he has miles to go as he prepares for his third-ever marathon which will be the 124th Boston Marathon on April 20. The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world’s most prestigious road racing events.

“If you’re a runner, the Boston Marathon is the race. I’ll be doing something I’ve wanted to do since seeing the race on television when I was a kid,” Hlad said.

Hlad, who lives in Monroe with his family, had times in his previous marathons — the Des Moines Marathon — to apply for acceptance in the Boston Marathon. The first time he got the email from the Boston Athletic Association telling him he didn’t make the cutoff.

“There’s a window in which to run a qualifying marathon time on a course of the exact distance (26 miles, 385 yards) and is recognized by the USATF,” Hlad said. “My 2018 time in the Des Moines Marathon was 2 hours, 52 minutes and I could use it for the 2020 Boston Marathon.”

Hlad used that time and he said he was pretty sure he would get in even after the standards were lowered to 3 hours for his age group. All times are reviewed and verified. According to the BAA website there are 31,500 runners in the 2020 Boston Marathon with 3,161 runners not getting in.

In the fall of 2019, Hlad received another email from the BAA and it was different.

“I’ll be honest I was a bit emotional. After talking to my wife, I had to be alone for a bit — to let it set in. Being accepted to run it is really surreal but I’m excited to have the opportunity,” he said.

Hlad began running distance races in earnest in middle school. He competed in cross country for Knoxville’s middle school and high school. Hlad ran a semester of cross country for Simpson College.

“I took some time away from running but I have been running the majority of my life,” Hlad said. “A friend of mine mentioned to me about taking part in the Market to Market race, which is a 75-mile relay. I ran seven or eight miles that day and I enjoyed it.”

Hlad said after competing in the Dam to Dam half-marathon, he realized he loved doing the longer duration distance races. He still enjoys running 5Ks and other races.

“It just grew from there seeing what I could do next and that’s when I went into marathoning. I like the challenge. When I ran my first marathon, I was in pretty good shape because I stay in pretty good shape year round. I like to run consistently so I don’t have to start from scratch,” Hlad said.

“I hadn’t done a lot of training you’d do for a marathon though. When I got the email from Boston that first time, I looked at it as a cool experience but it also was fuel for the next one. I trained properly and had a time eight minutes of the new cutoff standard.”

Since being notified in September, Hlad has been training. Most of it was about bumping up his mileage he trains. Hlad, who has a college degree in exercise science, said he devised a 16 to 18 week program where he progressively added to his mile totals.

“My longest run is a 20-mile training run where I’ve been figuring out the kind of drink to drink when from Gatorade to water and learn to eat and drink while I’m running and what energy gels to have with me and when to eat those,” he said. “There’s more training than just the running part.”

He said he does his longer runs on the weekends and the faster ones during the week. He said he staggers his harder runs and easy one or even a rest day. During the winter, Hlad ventured outdoor to run when the weather allowed, mainly that it wasn’t took icy.

“You pay attention to the weather, especially in the winter because you don’t want to slip on slick roads and injury yourself — there goes your shot. For my harder and faster runs, where I had to dial in on pace and tempo, I’m usually on the treadmill.”

The Boston Marathon course goes from rural Hopkinton, Mass., to Boston and it has hills. The most famous hill in all of running is almost certainly “Heartbreak Hill”, located between miles 20 and 21 of the Boston Marathon course in Newton, Mass. Heartbreak is the last of the three Newton Hills that determines the ultimate success or decomposition at the Boston Marathon.

“I’ve studied the course and Heartbreak Hill is a place in the race that can defeat people. I’ve been training on a lot of hills. There’s some pretty good hills around here and I’ve been using county roads for my hill training. We do a lot of up and down hill training where I work,” Hlad said.

Hlad works for HealthFitness as a contractor and is working at Corteva Agriscience in Johnston in its wellness center offering services to the company’s employees. He said they do group fitness and personal trainer services and it has a Fit Club with teams for races like Dam to Dam and the Grand Blue Mile.

“What’s great is it is a 1-2 combination for me to keep me accountable and excited about running and pass it on to others, seeing them get better. I tell those I work with to take it one day at a time as they pursue running. That’s how I’m approaching my opportunity for the Boston Marathon,” he said.

Hlad said he moved to Monroe after his parents — John and Stephanie Hlad — moved to the community as his father is at the pastor for Solid Rock Church. After college he came to the area and worked for a while at the Newton YMCA then another opportunity presented itself and he moved to Des Moines.

But Hlad and his wife, Sara, and 4-year-old son Ellis, now live in Monroe. He said his wife works in Pella and he is in Des Moines and they settled in the middle to cut down on long commutes.

“I don’t know how I’m going to approach the race yet. On one hand, I’m thinking about just go in and enjoy it and take it all in and run the race. But I’m very competitive so I could just go for broke,” he said. “I have five weeks and pretty soon the training will come down and I’ll enjoy things and get ready for race day.”

Hlad will have a cheering section in Boston as his wife, son , parents and sister, Hannah Hlad are traveling with him. He said his brother-in-law lives in Boston and following the race the family will stay with him for a few days to take in the sights of the Boston area.

“No, I don’t know how I’m going to react to it all but one thing I do know, I plan to enjoy this. I don’t know if I’m going to be one those super happy finishers or crawling across the finish line,” Hlad said with a laugh.

The 2020 Boston Marathon starts at 8 a.m. (CDT) with the wheelchair divisions and the elite men start at 8:37 a.m. followed by the elite women at 8:45 a.m. The para-athletics division starts at 8:50 a.m.

Hlad said he should be in Wave One “of the average joes” which starts at 9 a.m. There are four waves of runners.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or
jsheets@newtondailynews.com