It is not unusual for a teacher to have a hobby or interest that, at times, may shine through the lesson plans, homework assignments and classroom chatter. One teacher with such an interest is Nelson Rodriguez.  As a Statistics Honors and Pre-Calculus teacher who has been at Plant since 2016, Rodriguez has been teaching for the past eight years. 

“Something that he does to make the class more interesting is he tries to get the students to bring real life examples into our lessons,” senior Morgan Shelton said. “He allows the students to bring in their personal perspectives.”  

Beyond his teaching, something less known about him is that he has been running and training for the Boston Marathon since 2014. 

“I feel that for anything you do, you have to have a big goal,” Rodriguez said. “You need to put a plan together and if you dedicate time to execute the plan, you can accomplish anything in life.”  

Rodriguez’s running career started when he was younger in Puerto Rico. He ran for his high school, and at age 19, he moved to attend the University of Florida where he stopped running to focus on his engineering degree. In 2011, he began running again with his friends after over 20 years. 

“A main reason I began running and training again was because of medical reasons.” Rodriguez said. “I had high cholesterol and knee pain, so I was told to begin a sport.” 

His first run was in 2014, and he now participates in larger runs like the Gasparilla Distance Marathon. He has run in the Gasparilla Distance Classic Run for the past six years and has been titled the Grand Master Champion three times.  

“[I was] surprised and encouraged to continue setting new running goals,” Rodriguez said. “Finally, my training efforts showed great results.”  

His overall marathon personal record is 3:14 in Detroit, Michigan, and his half-marathon personal record is 1:29 in Celebration, Florida. This upcoming October, he will be running his 12th marathon in Chicago, Illinois.  

The Boston Marathon is one of the biggest marathons in the country. Rodriguez has been training and practicing for it six days a week, running as early as at 3:30 am, only taking Fridays off. This has been his fourth time qualifying for the marathon and his fourth year attending.  

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile dream or goal,” Rodriguez said. “Any goal worthwhile pursuing takes time and effort, so have fun while you make it happen.” 

Everything someone does is for a purpose, and for Rodriguez, it was health. But to accomplish being a runner without injury, he had a coach. His mentor is retired Navy Capt. Steve Swift, and they have worked together since 2014. Now, they both coach each other and are still very close.  

Rodriguez is also his daughter’s coach in Chicago and wants to apply his life experiences and passion with his students here.  

“My main goal right now is to coach my daughter and pace her so she can qualify for Boston in 2020,” Rodriguez said. “My goal is to make it happen for her.”  

Something Rodriguez would like teachers, staff and parents to know about is Go365, a wellness and rewards program that helps employees make healthier decisions to guide them in their personal wellness journey. 

“I am more than happy to help anybody that has some desire to either start, continue or have somebody to talk to as a mentor on the coach’s side,” Rodriguez said.