I know that I'm a few years late, but I came across this issue and took an unorthodox approach. I wanted to do it without making a new class, so this is what I came up with:
int x = 0;
new Thread((new Runnable() {
int x;
public void run() {
// stuff with x and whatever else you want
}
public Runnable pass(int x) {
this.x = x;
return this;
}
}).pass(x)).start();