Revere Teacher Nate Dore Goes the Extra “26.6” Miles

By Melissa Moore-Randall

Most days you will find Nate Dore teaching physical education at the Beachmont Elementary School and SeaCoast High School, a position that he has held for over a decade. However, when he is not teaching students physical education, he is also an avid runner who just completed his first Boston Marathon with a time of 3:45:38.

Nate was inspired to run his first Boston Marathon last spring. He completed the Horseneck Half Marathon in June of 2021 with a time of 1:38. As a result, he said he felt fine and it got him thinking about  committing to doing a full marathon. “As a teacher (start of April vacation) and huge sports fan, I have always loved Marathon Monday including going into Fenway, cheering the runners on, the atmosphere, the excitement, the weather (on the nice years of course). I figured if I were ever to commit to doing a full marathon, there wasn’t another one in the world I could imagine doing before Boston. The fact that this year’s 125th Boston Marathon hadn’t been run in over a year and a half due to Covid, and the fact it was going to be run in the fall, (meaning I could build on my half marathon training over the three plus months leading up to it) was also very much a contributing factor.“

Dore is originally from Westport. His family includes his parents, Moe and Pat, and sister, Danielle, three years younger and also a teacher.  His family still lives in Westport. His wife, Abbie, also a teacher at the Beachmont, is from the next town over, Dartmouth. Nate went to Westfield State for Physical Education and Athletic Training, and was hired in Revere right after he graduated.  Nate and his wife moved to Peabody this summer with their dog and cat after living in Saugus for years.

Nate has been working in Revere for more than a decade. “I was hired as the Revere Hight School (RHS) athletic trainer and one of the RHS P.E. teachers for the 2008-2009 school year, and did that for two years. When SeaCoast moved to the Beachmont building for the 2010-11 school year, I came over to be the P.E. teacher for both schools, and have done that since. I continue to work with Keith Correia covering Revere sports as an athletic trainer, along with working as an athletic trainer for Bunker Hill Community College and Melrose Wakefield Hospital.

Nate was fairly new to competitive running. “I played baseball, basketball, golf, and was a skier/snowboarder growing up, so I’ve never run as part of a team or organized sport. In college I started to run a few miles at a time as part of workouts/for general fitness. It was mostly just something to do as a workout/for personal fitness, but it helped that I was relatively  â€œgood” at it, and able to naturally run at a decent pace for a few miles pretty easily. I never pushed myself beyond that though. Also, Westport is a beach town, and I used to work at a campground on the beach in the summer, and run there a lot.  Having a beautiful location I was so close to and that I enjoyed running at helped keep me motivated to run. That continued when I moved up here, as I’ve run Revere Beach after work for years.”

Eventually Nate’s love of running did turn competitive. “I did a sprint triathlon with a couple of friends about 10 years ago and liked it, but didn’t do any other races after that for 5 or so years. In the last 5 or so years though, I did some occasional 5k like The Cambridge Fall Classic, The Cambridge Freedom Run but I really started doing more races once Covid started, some of which were “virtual” just running on my own and submitting the time via a tracking app. Abbie and I (along with my family from Westport) did the Social Distance Dash in both 2020 and 2021, and the Revere Beach Pumpkin Dash in 2020 and 2021 (all of which were fundraiser events for Revere Beach Partnerships). We also did the 2020 and 2021 Harpoon 5 Miler (raises funds for the Angel Fund- ALS Research), and I did a virtual half marathon during the summer of 2020. My first and only in person half marathon was the Horseneck Half Marathon in June of 2021 down in Westport, that started and ended at the beach I have been running at for 15 plus summers going back to college.”

The charity that Nate selected for the Boston Marathon was The Shawn Thornton Foundation  (https://www.thorntonfoundation.org/). The Shawn Thornton Foundation is dedicated to helping find cures for diseases close to Shawn’s heart, specifically, Parkinson’s and cancer. The Foundation will work towards this mission by raising awareness, funding innovative research and helping to relieve the burden and improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

“As a lifelong Bruins fan thanks to my parents, I knew Shawn Thornton had done a lot of amazing charity work during his time in Boston, and then later (and currently) his time in Florida.  He currently works for the Florida Panthers.  My father was diagnosed with Parkinson just over 2 years ago, less than a year after he retired after a 20 year career as a Police Officer.  Additionally and unfortunately, everyone knows someone that has been affected by cancer, and I’m no different. My mom’s father suffered from lung cancer, passing away before I was born, and Abbie’s father successfully overcame cancer which came about due to an extremely compromised immune system after undergoing a heart transplant. So a charity that raises funds to fight, and to help people dealing with those 2 diseases was a no brainer for me. I only learned about the Shawn Thornton Foundation after my father was diagnosed, but Shawn and his team do an annual golf tournament every fall, and organize a team for the Falmouth Road Race, and the Boston Marathon every year. I am hopeful to run the Marathon for the Shawn Thornton Foundation again down the road, but not in 2022. I will be doing the Falmouth Road Race for sure though, and I am considering a different Fall Marathon for 2022.”

Throughout the pandemic Nate became actively involved in volunteering for the City of Revere. “When Covid first hit and all after school athletics, and in turn my second job, came to a halt, I suddenly had a lot more free time on my hands. I started helping with food/meal deliveries and distribution from the Beachmont School with Stacey Rizzo, Stacey Livotie, and Food Services, along with helping at the Food Pantry at the First Congregational Church in Revere. With sports being back in full swing, I am back working after school 10-15 hours a week, but try to continue to help at least once or twice a week at the Food Pantry. Everyone involved there does an amazing job helping to feed over 300 families a week.” Nate wanted to extend his thanks to those who supported him during his marathon training and participation. “Just a huge thank you to everyone that supported me. Whether it was sending me a message of support, or donating directly, buying raffle tickets, or squares for the Pats vs. Bucs game, not only did I reach my fundraising goal, I surpassed it by $1,250.  The list of people to thank is too long to name individually, but especially my wife & sister, my parents and family, and my friends that came out to cheer me on. I also would like to thank Revere guy and former Boston Marathoner himself, Bob Feeney, for coaching and preparing me. Lastly, the people and local business that donated to my fundraising event and raffles that helped me raise over 1/4 of my goal in one night:  April Feeney & Bent Water Brewing Company (Lynn), Easy Pie (Revere), Murrays Tavern (Revere), Stacey Livotie & The Marina at the Wharf (Revere), Night Shift Brewing (Everett), Mill River Winery (Rowley), Jacs Café (Winthrop), Jose Santana & Santana’s Barbershop (Peabody), and Claudette Mercurio