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By Alex Bavosa

Civil engineering and running marathons. For most people, these are two completely different realms of activities. But for 30-year-old New England native Jonas Hampton, engineering and running intertwine to form his way of life. 

From a young age, Hampton was inspired by his father to get into running.

“He always bragged about how he was faster than me,” Hampton said. “I don't really know if that was true, but he liked to get that out, and he always said that he had more trophies than me, so when I would win one it was always nice to brag to him about when I was still home.”

Hampton graduated from the University of Hartford with a civil engineering degree, and was also a four-year member of the cross country and track teams. Although he was the captain of the teams his senior year, Hampton was not sold on his abilities yet. 

“I wasn't that great of a runner in college,” he said. “After I graduated, I really just wanted to continue running. I just really wasn't sure what, or where, or what would come from it.”

His mindset changed in 2015, after he entered himself into his first career marathon in Hartford, Connecticut. 

“I figured the time to win would be 2:18 or 2:19, and I knew based off my half marathon time that should be right around where I could run,” he said.

Instead, he won the race with a time of 2:15:57, qualifying for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Marathon in the process. But it wasn’t necessarily the start of a new chapter for him.

“In terms of life changes, I didn't really have any,” he said. “I was still working full time, 40+ hours a week, so nothing in that term has really changed.”

When he isn't running on roads, Hampton is building them. He has been working as a highway design engineer for almost four years. He started in the Connecticut department of transportation, working with the design unit. He fell in love with the job, as he said he has always had a passion to build and draw. Hampton has recently found a new job in highway design at a much bigger scale. He now lives in Boston.  

Hampton has never actually designed a road in which he has run a race on, but he does think about his work while he competes. 

“I've run through a busway, it goes from New Britain to Hartford, probably 10 miles long, and they actually had a 15K that was on it,” he said. “I didn't personally design it, but it was definitely different because it was pretty much just paved. I thought, “well this is a nice surface, I wish more of my projects were on this.” 

This time around, Hampton was able to get off of work for two months so he could train and compete in the upcoming 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta. He wasn’t able to do this back in the 2016 trials.

“This is my first race of this caliber that I haven't been working full-time, so I have actually had a lot of preparation,” he said. “I feel really good.”

He said that this could be the difference he needed to make to be able to compete at an elite level and even finish in the top three, qualifying for the Olympics.

Although finishing top 3 may be a stretch, Hampton said that there is “no reason” why he couldn't finish in the top 15, or even in the top 10.

Former Hartford teammate John Busque had high praise for Hampton. “Jonas is definitely going to be a dark horse at the trials, but I’m confident he is going to turn some heads with his performance,” he said.

Jonas will have his shot to make it to Tokyo on Feb. 29. If everything goes to plan, Jonas won't be building roads this summer, but running on them at the highest level of the sport he loves.

Leading up to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon, Atlanta Track Club partnered with the Grady Sports Media program at the University of Georgia to profile some of the competitors in the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. The authors of these stories are undergraduate students enrolled in the program and have been lightly edited by the Club. See all of the stories at https://www.atlanta2020trials.com/news/uga-trials-project.