The John-Henry Westen Show - 101 ULTRAMARATHONS to Deliver THIS Message! ｜ Jonathan Kuplack

00:00:00.000 They want to be challenged, but nobody challenges them, so they never taste it.

00:00:05.680 Hello, my friends, and welcome to the John Henry Weston Show. It is a hot day here in Canada,

00:00:10.020 so I'm sure it must be steaming wherever you are. We are here today to talk about a summer

00:00:15.860 activity, I guess you could say, but that makes it all the harder. Imagine running a marathon.

00:00:20.980 Imagine running a marathon every day. Imagine doing that for weeks and weeks on end. We're

00:00:29.980 running, and he's running not only for himself to achieve the best he can be, but for the faith

00:00:38.300 and to spread the way that running and endurance might help you form yourself as a man, but also

00:00:46.800 form yourself in the faith. Jonathan, so good to be with you. Good to be here with you as well,

00:00:51.000 John Henry. Thanks for having me. Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.

00:00:54.320 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:01.240 So, Jonathan, tell us about yourself. You're like a born runner. First of all, give me this. You did

00:01:09.200 how many marathons in how many days straight? So I did 101 ultra marathons in 101 days.

00:01:16.380 Consecutive with no stopping? No breaks. Every single day. I ran 35 miles a day for 101 days.

00:01:23.180 And you're still alive. I'm hanging in there. I'm hanging in there.

00:01:26.340 How recently did you complete that, and what did you just complete now?

00:01:29.600 I finished the cross-country Via Magna run on the Feast of Divine Mercy, Divine Mercy Sunday. I think

00:01:38.180 it was April 27th. And you're gearing up for something else. Yes, yes. We've got a big race on

00:01:43.980 the docket. It's called the Mammoth 200 in Mammoth, California. It's a 206 mile race through

00:01:50.120 the mountains around Mammoth. A lot of that sounds insane, especially for those of us who aren't

00:01:56.800 runners. I did the three-day sharp pilgrimage, which is about 20, 22 miles a day. And I thought

00:02:06.360 that was brutal. And we were just walking. We got up at five and usually bunked down at around 1030.

00:02:12.060 And I thought that was brutal. And shoes didn't look good. And blisters on feet. But

00:02:17.500 you were doing almost double that every day for 101 days. That's insane. Okay, tell us. How'd you

00:02:24.560 get into that? You know, John Henry, ever since I was a kid, I always loved moving. And I never ran as

00:02:30.360 a sport. I always ran as training for other sports, a lot of football, baseball. And as I got into high

00:02:35.900 school, soccer and rugby became the main sports that kind of captured my imagination. So running was

00:02:42.020 always training for that. But in the off seasons, I just loved it. I love running in the woods,

00:02:46.540 trails. And I just, I got a lot of life from that. Into my adult years, I continued always,

00:02:51.480 always running no matter where I was. I always kept running. And only within the last three years

00:02:56.780 did I start racing competitively, almost on accident. So.

00:02:59.900 But when you did start competing, you did well, sort of right off the bat.

00:03:04.320 I did. I did. Now, just in case there's any ultra runners listening to this, the races

00:03:10.380 that I entered, they weren't attracting a very deep field. But they were still my first couple

00:03:16.900 races. And I did well. I surprised myself. I won. I came in first and second in every race

00:03:22.720 I've run so far. Yeah. So, okay. So tell us about what you're doing and why you did this run.

00:03:30.880 So a friend of mine and I, we started a nonprofit organization called Sebast, named after the 40

00:03:36.780 martyrs of Sebast who, just to make the long and a beautiful long story short, they chose to freeze

00:03:44.400 to death on a frozen lake rather than deny Christ. And I found their story so inspiring. That's what we

00:03:51.720 named our organization that. And the purpose of our organization is to help young men enter into

00:03:57.740 right relationship with Jesus Christ. And there's a lot that goes into that. And I'm not going to sit

00:04:02.220 here and claim that I know everything about that, but we do know something and we shouldn't be afraid

00:04:07.920 to give the two loaves and fish that we have. And we'll see what Jesus can do with that.

00:04:14.000 So we decide to do the cross country run as an official launch project. We've been operating for

00:04:19.940 five years now, but almost underground, not very public, just word of mouth. So this cross country

00:04:26.320 run was to inspire people, but also an awareness campaign to say, guys, there's a place where you

00:04:32.940 can go if you want to go deeper. And we're down here in New Mexico. So that's, that's why we did it.

00:04:39.420 So there's a question right off the bat. A lot of people can't imagine doing what you're doing.

00:04:45.300 And I'm sure you don't make all your, your, the, the, the young men who come and join your young

00:04:50.520 boys, even who come and join you in your Sevast group, do what you're doing. But nonetheless,

00:04:55.820 there's a lot of kids, boys who are, they don't feel themselves athletically gifted at all. Maybe not

00:05:04.180 even academically gifted, but you know, they, there comes in all shapes and sizes. And what do you do

00:05:12.840 for them? Do you ever have boys join your group who aren't gifted, uh, that way? Um, and yet they'll

00:05:20.160 try. What do you do for that? Absolutely. John Henry. I mean, right now, as we're having this

00:05:25.020 conversation, we have 15 college men here for 10 weeks for a 10 week program. And there's a handful

00:05:31.360 of the guys in there that it seems like there's not an athletic bone in their body. And, uh, but

00:05:37.520 it's helping them see that you're a human being, you're a body and a soul. You're a body, soul

00:05:43.160 composite. And as a human being, you're a mover. We're made to move. We're made to use this,

00:05:50.280 this body that we don't just inhabit the body. We, we are in a sense, the, the body and the soul,

00:05:57.260 we are that. It's not just, I'm a soul in a body and we have a responsibility to take care of this.

00:06:04.720 I always ask the guys, you know, if you had a million dollar racehorse, would you take that

00:06:08.220 through McDonald's? But you have a temple to Holy Spirit here and you're, you're hitting that all

00:06:13.560 the time. Like guys, we need to respect and honor and nurture and cultivate this. So we have the

00:06:18.840 energy and the strength to serve the people around us and to live a flourishing human life. So helping

00:06:23.640 them see that and then desire that is, it is difficult, but we, we do our best. That you hit on a

00:06:30.760 key thing, desire that. So it's really easy to desire the comfortable life, but also just the

00:06:40.540 ease, the comfort, the good life, if you will, that's so-called. How do you get them to move beyond

00:06:46.400 that into embracing and even desiring something more, especially a life of sacrifice?

00:06:53.360 No, I love that question. I love, we could talk about that forever. Uh, you know, getting guys to

00:06:58.680 want, want the strenuous life. Like as men, we're made for the strenuous life. We are, we're made to

00:07:07.380 provide, to protect, we're made to serve. We're made to spend our strength in the service of a

00:07:12.580 worthy cause, in the service of others. And that's when we've come most fully alive. And it's so

00:07:19.280 beautiful. And most young men, they've never tasted that. So it's how do we get you, get them to taste

00:07:26.420 these things that might seem a little intimidating and not desirable. What's desirable for most young 0.99

00:07:33.900 men is their parents' couch and an Xbox and a giant Coke and some potato chips. That's what most

00:07:40.640 of them desire, but they don't actually desire that. That's just been this, this artificial desire

00:07:45.420 that's been cultivated by our culture. But when they actually taste the joy of the struggle,

00:07:51.720 the joy of the battle, and we start living in imitation of Jesus Christ and the way that he

00:07:58.360 came to this earth to love and to serve and to show us that way, they come alive. They want to be

00:08:05.560 challenged, but nobody challenges them. So they never taste it. Okay. So now you've got the attention

00:08:11.560 of a ton of parents who have a, you know, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 year old, who is what you described

00:08:18.860 the couch potato with the bag of chips and the Coke, uh, on the Xbox or whatever other system that they

00:08:24.420 might have, or just the TV remote. And they're all hungry saying, all right, what do we do?

00:08:31.980 Yes. You know, John Henry, I don't myself, I just got married six months ago and I don't have any

00:08:37.840 children of my own yet. So I've never raised young children. I am the second oldest of 13.

00:08:42.820 So I've been around a lot of children and I've taught at a boys boarding school for years.

00:08:48.180 So I'm, I'm very familiar with the age, age group between 14 and 18. So I've raised a lot of kids

00:08:54.940 in that age group. And what I would say is, I mean, they have to be inspired. I mean, desire is the key.

00:09:02.600 You said it without, without the desire, they will not go. You can make all the rational arguments in

00:09:08.660 the world. Why it's not good to play video games, why it's isn't good for you, why you're actually

00:09:13.380 hurting yourself and hurting your future family and your future spouse and your future community

00:09:17.820 and, and the present right now. It doesn't matter. They're, they've been too seduced by the comfort

00:09:22.720 and the solution, the life that the culture proposes. They need to be inspired. They need to

00:09:27.640 meet someone who sets their heart on fire, who can show them something beautiful that captivates

00:09:31.860 their imagination that then initiates that desire. It's got to, you got to capture the imagination of them.

00:09:37.780 I don't know how to put that in a neat, in a neat package and mail it to someone.

00:09:42.960 What did it for you? You, uh, being the, the, you know, in, in a huge family and, uh, something

00:09:49.020 obviously inspired you. What was it?

00:09:52.580 John Henry, I was so blessed. I went to an all boys Catholic boarding school. It was called

00:09:58.800 St. Gregory's Academy in Northeastern Pennsylvania. And that school changed my entire life. My whole

00:10:06.460 worldview flipped on its head. All of a sudden it, it woke up desire in me. It woke up my imagination

00:10:12.800 and it was the only way I can describe my four years. There was a beautiful, magical, transformative

00:10:19.580 experience where I actually, for the first time in my life, I had teachers that truly inspired me.

00:10:25.300 I saw these men that I wanted to be like these men. There was something about them. It was so beautiful.

00:10:30.400 They were so, there was an intensity. There was a love. There was a joy. There was a playfulness,

00:10:35.320 but there was also this deep love for our Lord, for our lady, and for the Catholic faith that I had

00:10:41.000 never seen in any of my teachers before. The faith was always just a dead subject on a page. It wasn't

00:10:47.080 the living, breathing God in us. And I, I, it just, it changed everything for me. Yeah. It was beautiful.

00:10:56.340 Tell us about the benefits you might say of, of kind of pushing your endurance. What are the

00:11:05.680 spiritual benefits? What are the benefits for you generally as a man? You know, this is kind of a

00:11:10.440 cliche throwaway line, but I do believe it. There is this thing to testing the limits of, of your own

00:11:15.840 heart and going to a place you didn't think you could go to. I tell the kids a lot. There's,

00:11:22.940 you always have more in the tank. When you think your tank is empty, you've barely, you have not

00:11:28.940 begun, not yet begun to tap the depths. The human soul has such great depths and there's such a

00:11:35.660 magnanimity within us that only difficulties and hardships and struggle can draw, draw out.

00:11:43.600 But I think my favorite thing about ultra running for me is, is courage, uh, and humility.

00:11:49.240 People might look at these races and they might say, well, you do these really difficult things and

00:11:55.620 that can make you really proud or the self-sufficient. But really what you do is you're just running up

00:12:00.720 against your own weakness. You are confronting your own weakness and you are hitting a wall and

00:12:05.520 you're like, Lord, so many times in a race, my prayer is, Jesus, I can't do this. I need you to

00:12:11.400 carry me here. I need you. Especially as men, it's so easy for us. I'm assuming we're all in the same

00:12:18.240 boat. I think I'm a pretty good example of a standard human dysfunctional male, but it's so

00:12:24.440 hard for us to trust the Lord because we like to rely on ourselves. I'll do it. I'll fix it. My

00:12:30.360 projects, my plans, like, no, we need to invite Jesus into those places because we cannot truly,

00:12:37.120 we're too weak. We cannot do it. So these ultra endurance tests, they bring us up against our

00:12:43.780 weakness and it humbles you. It shows you the truth about yourself. It's a mirror of truth about

00:12:50.040 this is where I really am. This is how much I need a savior and I need the Lord. And it's beautiful

00:12:55.320 and it fills you with an immense joy. And then the courage aspect, it takes courage to push yourself

00:13:01.500 through pain. And, uh, St. Paul is the master of that. So I, yeah, those two things, courage and

00:13:09.280 humility. Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ. And he

00:13:17.460 urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the King so that individuals and states would submit

00:13:22.920 once more to the rule of their savior. And that is why LifeSite News is raising up the image of Christ

00:13:29.300 the King across the United States. And you can help us reach millions more. Please pledge your support

00:13:35.840 today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is King. What would you say are the hardest

00:13:44.760 challenges for young men today, boys and young men? I think it's having a real relationship with the

00:13:50.200 Lord. And because I think there, there is, they're saturated with so many distractions. The devil

00:13:58.040 obviously is, is a master at this. He's been, he's been at this game for a long time and he's upgraded

00:14:04.640 his arsenal for the age. You know, maybe back in the day, he might've tempted people to excessive

00:14:10.520 glory or honor. No one's being tempted to do some great deeds in their own honor. They're being

00:14:18.820 tempted to just absolute degeneracy and sloth and pornography. And the smartphone is his biggest

00:14:26.140 weapon. And so many kids, they're growing up with this thing in their hand. I didn't see a cell phone

00:14:31.120 until I was 17. So praise the Lord. I just missed that era as a child. I never, it was never part

00:14:38.220 of my life. We had to play. We had to imagine we moved. I think the phone and the video games and

00:14:43.540 the television are the biggest obstacles for young men today to realizing the greatness for which they

00:14:49.540 were made and to having a real relationship with the Lord, because the zone is flooded with noise

00:14:54.420 and distraction. This is going to come as an odd question for you in a way, because I know you're

00:14:58.680 working in the other sphere, but what about women? What's your advice for women? If you have some, 0.99

00:15:03.680 because you're newly married, so I'd love to hear your take there.

00:15:08.200 Oh my goodness, John Henry, you're really, really putting me in the hot seat now.

00:15:12.940 Women, you know, John Henry, I have to just come clean here and tell you, I do not feel qualified 0.99

00:15:18.780 to speak about this. But what I can say is from my extremely limited experience,

00:15:25.280 just six months married, but just growing up and obviously having some sisters and

00:15:30.060 you see women in the world and you interact, we are different. We have different souls.

00:15:37.020 And there's a, again, cliche line, there's a beautiful complementarity there. And I've just

00:15:44.740 realized in the past six months with my wife, the first three months were extremely difficult

00:15:49.040 in a sense where I just felt something grating against me that was challenging me in a way that

00:15:53.240 I'd never been challenged before. But then once I came to realize that a truer self was on the other

00:16:00.520 side of this, I started to embrace that. And now it doesn't grate on me at all. And I'm, I just,

00:16:05.140 I'm so appreciative of the different perspective that she brings that challenges me to grow in ways that

00:16:11.860 I'm not familiar with. So that's the best I have for that.

00:16:16.800 Well, no, that's very interesting because that, that brings up this.

00:16:19.720 So here you're like, you're like man of steel, you're doing all this running, yet you found a

00:16:24.820 challenge in married.

00:16:27.220 It's a lot harder than running an ultra.

00:16:29.560 Boy. So tell us about that. What, what, what challenges the ones you can share, uh, did you

00:16:37.040 face? I mean, and, and what did you find hard? Uh, because that sounds crazy from this side of the,

00:16:42.600 from this side of things, looking at you, you're running these ultra marathons. And yet you say

00:16:45.940 it's hard to, to, um, to learn how to be a husband properly.

00:16:51.940 I'm only six months in. And if you asked me this in 10, 20 years, you get a different answer. But

00:16:56.680 from my limited six months, it's, I'm being called to love in a way that I've never been called to

00:17:02.600 love before. Loving the men that we work with is different than loving your wife and someone you live

00:17:11.440 with. There's this constant, you can never, there isn't an escape. There's never a break. Like I'm

00:17:17.620 here for an hour and now I'm going to leave. I'll see you tomorrow. It's the constant demand, but not

00:17:22.620 demand in a bad way, in a way that draws, constantly draws you out of yourself and says, I'm going to

00:17:29.800 pour life into this other person. And I'm going to be attentive to this and to their needs and their

00:17:36.500 hopes and their dreams. For me, it helps get me out of my own head and get me out of my own

00:17:41.000 selfishness. Cause I think at the root of everything, we're, we're all pretty selfish

00:17:44.820 and self-centered and I know I am. And I'm also very impatient. So not having things at my game speed,

00:17:52.880 which I like to move quick. That's also a beautiful challenge for me. And I felt so liberated in the past

00:17:59.460 six months. Like I'm being freed from something that I've been enslaved to. Yeah, that's, that's what I've

00:18:05.220 got so far. I know a lot of the young men will be interested in this. How do you find a wife?

00:18:11.320 Because how do you find a girlfriend? I mean, I mean, like, I, and I don't mean a girlfriend to,

00:18:16.240 to, to, to just go out. I mean, to a court, someone to court because that's a lot on both,

00:18:22.720 both sides of the, of the spectrum, men and women. It's really tough because where do you go? Once you

00:18:28.940 get out in the work world, if you don't find a spouse in the Catholic college, God willing, you were 0.99

00:18:32.520 able to attend, uh, it's sort of, you feel lost, uh, because where do you go? Do you go to a bar?

00:18:38.980 I mean, what is there? And, and a lot of people, um, I know in the United States, the United States

00:18:44.840 where you are, is particularly blessed in that there are these, uh, huge communities often of

00:18:52.340 traditional Latin mass of, of very reverent parishes in a lot of places in the world that

00:18:57.300 doesn't exist. So what would you suggest in, in terms of finding a spouse or finding someone to,

00:19:03.140 to even look toward a marriage with? Yeah. You know, it's, it's funny, John Henry, how

00:19:08.260 with the advent of all these new technologies, like especially the smartphones and all these

00:19:14.400 different things, people don't tend to socialize in the same types of ways. I'm sure you've observed

00:19:21.180 throughout your life. Uh, there aren't as many live gatherings where we used to get together all

00:19:26.460 the time. There's always things happening where there were these opportunities for, for interaction.

00:19:31.620 The way I met my wife was at a coffee shop. My, my little brother married her niece. So I was talking

00:19:38.920 to my little brother and she walked in, sat down at our table. He left to take a call for work and we

00:19:44.400 ended up talking for an hour. And then I, we went on a hike the next day. She was a collegiate soccer

00:19:48.720 player. I also played soccer in college. So we went and play, we went, we went and played one-on-one

00:19:53.600 two days later. And, uh, and then, um, she's also a professional musician. She's a professional

00:20:00.220 cellist. And so we went out to a music, uh, a music outing. And, but the thing that really,

00:20:07.380 what I would say to young guys is you have to find a woman who's in love with the Lord.

00:20:11.560 And my wife is the most attractive thing about her was her absolute obsession with becoming 1.00

00:20:19.420 a great saint and how in love she was with our lady in the rosary. And the only thing she

00:20:26.660 cares about is getting to heaven. And I'm like, I can get behind that. So that, that's what

00:20:34.820 I would say. Find someone who's completely in love with God.

00:20:37.280 Wow. Jonathan, for such a young man, you are a wealth of information and experience. Believe it

00:20:44.580 or not, I think, uh, very many people will be blessed by your words. Tell us, uh, where people

00:20:49.360 can, uh, keep in touch with you and, uh, what you do. Absolutely. If, um, they could go to

00:20:55.180 sebast.org. That's our website and you can find our contact information. Spell that out for us.

00:21:00.960 S-E-B-A-S-T-E dot O-R-G. Sebast.org. You can see what we're doing on the website. You can get in

00:21:09.220 touch with us through there. And right now the main project of Sebast is this college men's

00:21:14.200 summer formation program. And right now I'm looking to launch a professional ultra running career,

00:21:20.560 but I don't want to pick up any corporate sponsors. We'd like to be sponsored from just the Catholic 0.98

00:21:26.120 world. So I can continue to go out and to speak at schools and colleges and parishes around the

00:21:32.060 country without having any strings attached. So that's what we're doing right now.

00:21:37.140 Awesome. Jonathan Kuplak. Thank you so much for joining us. God bless you. And, um,

00:21:42.840 may our Lord continue to, uh, have you running for his team. It's, uh, it's an amazing work you're

00:21:48.880 doing. Thank you, John Henry. I appreciate it. And God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.

00:21:56.120 The Lord be with you. I'm Deacon Keith Fournier, and I hope you enjoyed this video from LifeSite

00:22:03.640 News. Check the links in the description for more content like this. You can also connect with

00:22:09.960 LifeSite News on social media and stay up to date with the latest news on life, faith, family,

00:22:17.560 and freedom. Thanks for watching and may the Lord bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - June 27, 2025

101 ULTRAMARATHONS to Deliver THIS Message! ｜ Jonathan Kuplack

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