Of Math and Marathons

04/14/2015
Eagle-Tribune
By Peter Francis

HAVERHILL — The space is situated on the second floor and adorned with the usual trappings of a middle-school classroom: posters of math terms and symbols, white grease boards tagged up with the chicken-scratch writing of the room's curator.

Instructor Nate Jenkins is a mild-mannered seventh-grade math teacher at Consentino Middle School, as adept at explaining how to find the circumference of a circle and the value of pi as he is at keeping his most rowdy and rambunctious students in line.

But the calm and cool demeanor Jenkins exudes with the students in his three seventh-grade classes belies a fiery passion that burns inside the 34-year-old everyday; that of a world-class distance runner — one of America's best — who is readying for what may be the defining race of his life.

In less than a week, Jenkins will travel to the small town of Hopkinton for his first Boston Marathon, a moment he has been awaiting his entire life.

In advance of the marathon, filmmakers from Runners World Magazine spent time at Consentino School recently, getting footage of Jenkins teaching, along with capturing him training outside school and probing into what it takes to balance a full-time teaching career with high-level competitions. The footage will be aired on runnersworld.com.

"I've been running since I was a kid, starting in junior high school in '92 or '93," said Jenkins, who grew up in the town of Templeton in rural Worcester County and attended UMass Lowell, where we walked onto the cross country and track and field teams. Jenkins graduated with an education degree in '03 and a master's in '04. 

After competing in the IAAF World Championships in 2009 and finishing seventh in the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials in New York City, Jenkins turned his attention away from professional running to focus on teaching, but when asked what competing in the Boston Marathon on Monday will mean to him, Jenkins said he views it as a rite of passage for any serious runner residing in the Northeast.

"Being a New Englander, the Boston Marathon becomes something you have to do. When I qualified with the Olympic trials, my Dad said, 'Does this mean you qualified for Boston?'" he said.

"The events of the past few years have brought it into scope for non-runners, but for us in the community, it's always been there and (the bombings) just solidified its place for all of us," said Jenkins, who added that he has trained on the course before. "As a local guy, it'll definitely be exciting."

While many participants in this year's marathon may find themselves feeling some intense emotions in the wake of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial in which the defendant was found guilty on all 30 counts in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Jenkins said he plans to approach the legendary course by "focusing on the task at hand."

"I'm going to try not to put too much extra pressure on and think about too many other things," he said. "I'm a one thing at a time kind of guy."

At first glance, it may be hard to imagine Jenkins, a North Andover resident whose wife, Melissa, is a Bradford native, lining up against the world's fastest distance runners, but he says running 26.2 miles might actually be on par with or even easier than his day job.

"Marathons are all about recovery afterward, but the last hour here can be a struggle," he said with a grin. "But I've got three really good groups this year."

Jenkins typically logs around 100 miles a week when training for a marathon. He wakes at 5 every morning to run 4 or 5 miles, followed by between 10 and 15 more miles in the afternoon.

Jenkins' Brittany Spaniel, Uta, named after Uta Pippig, the first woman to win the Boston Marathon for three consecutive years, accompanies him during speed workouts.

The students enrolled in his classes also are treated to a strictly regimented schedule, with Jenkins updating the time on a white board every few minutes, explaining quick lessons and handing out short worksheets at precise moments in an effort to maximize learning and help his pupils grasp complex material.

They're exactly the sort of math classes one would expect one of the best runners in America to teach.

As his first class continues into the morning, like all great runners, Jenkins never once reaches a stasis. Instead he gains energy over the course of the class, his voice heightening ever so slightly with his own excitement about the material, which spurs the class of roughly 20 students to ask questions and write their answers down quickly on their worksheets.

Consentino Middle School Principal Dr. John Mele said Thursday that Jenkins, who is in his third year teaching at the school, has been a fine addition to the staff and that he arrives at school every day with the attitude that a man never stops learning

"He's eager to learn from staff and students alike," said Mele, adding that Jenkins coached the Consentino cross country team two years ago but had to give it up to begin training for the Boston Marathon. "He takes well to suggestion, which is a testament to how hard he works training for marathons.

"He's a very humble man, so much so that I'm sure most of the kids and staff here may not be aware that he's a world-class runner," Mele added.

That anonymity may not last much longer, as one of Jenkins' colleagues, Colleen Wrisley, a seventh-grade science teacher, has ordered almost 40 black-and-green T-shirts for staff to wear this coming Friday, the last school day before Jenkins embarks on what will surely be one of his most memorable marathons yet.

"Next Friday will be 'Nate Jenkins Day' at Consentino. We're going to show our support for our co-worker and how hard he has worked preparing for the marathon," said Wrisley, adding that the shirts will be adorned with the words "Team Jenkins" on the front and "#RunNateRun" on the back.

"I would say that the majority of staff is showing their support by wearing the shirts," she added. "It's amazing that he can work full time and still train for marathons. The guy is unbelievable."