Stow Runner Finishes Boston Marathon in Top Percentile

Growing up, Stow native Chad Lutz never really had an interest in running. But now that he is among the elite top 2 percent of Boston Marathon runners, could the Olympics be far off?

Lutz, 25, completed the world’s oldest annual marathon last Monday with a time of 2:50:04, placing 585th overall out of 26,895 amateur and professional runners from around the world.

The grueling 26.2-mile race that winds through eight Massachusetts towns, ending near Copley Square in Boston, was only the second full marathon Lutz had ever run.

“It’s a lofty goal, but one day I would like to run in the Olympics. I’ve got my eye on 2016,” said Lutz. “It’d be a really cool experience to be an Olympic athlete.”

Lutz has always had a strong interest in sports, dedicating himself fully to whichever activity captivated his interest at the time. Through middle school it was baseball. Then, at , it was four years of competitive swimming. While at Kent State University, he dropped swimming in favor of amateur bodybuilding.

“During the course of training for bodybuilding, I was running four miles three times a week for basic conditioning,” he explained. “Somebody at work suggested that I run a half marathon with him, the Cleveland Fall Classic in 2009. I ran it and placed 44th out of 1,200 people.”

That finish prompted Lutz, a content writer at Clark Optimization in North Canton, to push his limits.

“I knew I could do better, so I put a lot of thought into training. A friend bought me a book on running for my birthday, and reading that I got all excited about training programs and regimes. I had my training all mapped out,” he said.

While working toward his next half marathon, the May 2010 Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Lutz connected with the Phillips Phlyers, a Cuyahoga Falls-based running group started by Joe Phillips.

“They (the Phlyers) were training for Boston last year while I was training for the Flying Pig,” Lutz explained. “Joe Phillips, who at that point had run the Boston Marathon every year for 15 years, said to me, ‘Next year, Boston.’”

Lutz finished the Flying Pig – which featured a thunderstorm the first four miles, followed by a torrential downpour – 29th out of nearly 9,500 people. “That was a big surprise,” he said.

Lutz decided to take Phillips up on his Boston challenge, but he needed to qualify first. He set his sights on last fall’s Akron Marathon, considered among the top five most difficult U.S. races.

“That was my first (full) marathon. I was telling people who had been running for 20-some-odd years that I was going to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon (in Akron). They told me I was dreaming,” said Lutz.

Six months of intensive training paid off. Lutz said he “barreled through and stayed focused,” qualifying for the Boston race by just one minute and one second with his Akron finish time of 3:08:59.

That gave him just over six months to get ready for the biggest challenge of his life.

“Training for Boston is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Lutz. “Going through this past winter there were days when no one else was available to run, so I’d have to bring myself to run alone for 18-plus miles in sub-zero temperatures with 10 mph headwinds.

“There were times I’d be running through six, seven inches of snow, but I was just really determined to run this race – to see what I was capable of.”

Looking at his running log, Lutz discovered he took only six days off from training between Dec. 20 and April 18. He ran mainly in neighborhoods near his Stow home or along trails at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

“Going into Monday I felt confident, but honestly had no idea what I could do. It was only my second marathon,” said Lutz. “I was shooting for (a finish time) between 2:40 and 2:50. Being optimistic, I believed I could go that pace. But realistically, I was thinking it was probably going to be a fight to break three hours. I was prepared for battle.”

He didn’t let his mind wander during the first half of the race, simply focusing on the scenery. During the second half, Lutz sought inspiration from the massive crowds that turn out to watch.

“What was really cool was the crowds – a million and a half people lining the route. Once I got past the halfway point, I started playing to the crowd to energize me, pump me up. I’d yell, ‘C’mon Boston,’ and the crowd roared,” said Lutz.

Waiting for him at the 21.5-mile mark, as planned, were his supportive parents, Will and Penny Lutz of Stow. “When I saw them, I just leapt in the air and pumped both fists. We yelled back at each other. It was such a great moment,” he said.

Less than five miles away, on Boylston Street, was the finish line. “My heart went through the roof when I rounded Boylston and saw the clock … the past seven months just all came together. It was almost poetic,” Lutz said.