New Hingham Teacher Provides Inspiration By Running Boston Marathon

For Hingham gym teacher Luke Dodge, inspiring young students comes easy.  Dodge just has to do what he enjoys most, which is to run.

Today Dodge will run the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon for the second year in a row and is expecting to run under two hours and 42 minutes.

 “The most exciting thing for me running, is just sharing that moment with the kids after they hear about the results,” he said. “They really get enthusiastic seeing me run and hearing about it."

Dodge, a physical education teacher at and School, teaches his children to be healthy and fit and how to eat the right foods and gain proper hydration.

 “I shed light to the fact that a healthy body is going to help them in their overall wellbeing and help them enjoy their lifestyle,” he said.

Last summer Dodge won Hingham’s Fourth of July Road Race, inspiring many kids around town.

Dodge, who is only 23,  grew up in Bourne and began running triathlons in 2007.  Since then he has run two marathons including the Philadelphia Marathon in September 2009 and Boston in 2010.

 In college he was a top runner at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy and since graduating in 2009 he runs with Boston Athletic Association and works out at MIT  and lives in Boston with a couple of his friends.

 Dodge began teaching in Hingham as a student teacher last year and was hired and  started fulltime in September.

 “I just like to express how grateful I am to be teaching in Hingham and what a joy it’s been to be part of the Hingham community,” he said.  “It’s been a great year so far and I already feel like it. This is home.”