Physical Challenges Never Stop This Triathlete: Jason Patrick Lester Keeps Running on Faith

By Fern Gavelek

“Today is the youngest you will ever be. Live like it.”

This advice comes from Jason Patrick Lester, who recently posted it on Facebook to his nearly 3,000 “friends.” Fewer than a dozen words, they speak volumes about the man who doesn’t let obstacles get in his way.

The Kailua-Kona resident has not only overcome more physical challenges than most, he has reached higher than many “extreme” athletes. Each setback seems to motivate the 36-year-old even more. Along the road to his dream of becoming an accomplished athlete, Jason has also earned the titles of professional motivator, artist and author.

In a brand new memoir—Running on Faith—just released by publishing giant Harper-Collins, Lester shares his “principles, passion and pursuit of a winning life” with the world. National notoriety is nothing new for the Arizona native. He first gained worldwide sports fame in 2009 when ESPN bestowed the triathlete with an ESPY Award for “Best Disabled Male Athlete.”

Ke Ola Magazine recently caught up with Jason on the Big Island, in-between training in Portland and overseeing one of his TriFREAKS training camps. Our talk together was his first interview that day; another was with TV’s 700 Club.

Upon meeting Jason, there’s no apparent sign of a physical challenge. He seems anything but disabled, emanating ease and charm. You barely notice his motionless right arm, carefully tucked into his pocket.

Jason lost the use of his arm when he was 12. Hit by a car while riding his bike in Phoenix, he sustained 21 broken bones and a collapsed lung. Being an avid Little League baseball player, the youth was devastated. While still adjusting to this traumatic disability, disaster struck again when his father and sole guardian died within the year.

At that tender age, Jason developed a profound sense of self-endurance and determination. Inspired by his and his father’s love of sports, the youth switched his athletic focus to track and cross-country.

“My father loved sports and taught me not to be a quitter,” he says.

“Spiritual Warfare”

Powering on, the teen competed in both high school and college. Lester also got back on a bike and says he was “full-time into biathlons” by the time he was 18—and ranked number two in the Grand Canyon State.

Jason moved to southern California in 1998, where he continued racing and worked at a sports agency. He represented professional athletes with marketing and licensing, including American welterweight boxer Oba Carr. “I got turned on to God through this amazing athlete,” says Lester. “Before that, I didn’t have a personal relationship with God.”

Lester explains that working with Carr showed him “he had a gift” as an athlete, that he too was special. “At the agency, the athletes used their God-given gifts to be pros,” Jason continues. “So I saw I could use my gift as an athlete too. Some people who lose the use of an arm might give up. I decided to use my gift to inspire others.” And so Jason kept racing. “Up until 2001 I didn’t understand why things had happened to me…with my arm…my dad…until I saw the amount of people I was inspiring by racing,” recalls Jason. “I realized then this work was my calling and that’s when God revealed himself to me. I started seeing signs.”

After witnessing the Ironman World Championship in Kona in 2004, Lester was energized to try the sport of triathlon. With a goal to come to Kona one day to compete, Lester began a rigorous training schedule and hired a swim coach. In 2007 he competed in his first Ironman, in Phoenix, using his left arm to swim.

Participation in that race took Jason back to the location of his tragic bike accident. “It was like spiritual warfare to go back,” he remembers. “I really didn’t want to be there with all the bad memories but I told myself, ‘I can overcome this.’ I finished and it was all that much sweeter.”

With an Ironman finish under his belt, Jason continued competing in triathlons in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Germany. “I never signed up for a race in the physically challenged category,” states Jason, who adds that the only exception was the 2008 Ironman World Championship in Kona, for which he won a race slot through lottery in the physically challenged category.

Lester conquered the grueling Kona Ironman course in 2008—finishing the 2.5-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle course and 26.2 mile run. And then, incredibly in the same year, he went on to achieve a personal and sports milestone by becoming the first physically challenged athlete ever to complete the Ultraman World Championship on the Big Island. Ultraman attracts an elite corps of athletes who face a 6.2-mile swim, 261.4-mile bike and 52.4 mile run over three days. Entry is limited to 35 participants.

In 2009, Jason repeated Ironman and Ultraman events, finishing 18th overall in the Ultraman Hawai‘i. His accomplishments and drive earned the triathlete the prestigious ESPY Award by ESPN. The annual award taps the year’s best athletes, teams and sports moments, as voted on by fans.

“Getting an ESPY was huge,” emphasizes Lester. “I was up there with all the other sports greats, walking the red carpet. It was like, yes, I have a challenge…and yes, I can prevail! It was the ultimate testimony to inspire others to do the same.”

Man on a Mission to Inspire

To that end, the recognized athlete is using his example to motivate others facing challenges through his new book and other media, speaking engagements and the creation in 2007 of the NEVER STOP Foundation, which is dedicated to using athletics as a tool to encourage youth to achieve their full potential (www.neverstopfoundation.org).

He also finds time to visit youth recovering in the hospital. “The goal of the foundation is to help kids find their own true voice, help them build their confidence, improve their ability to express themselves and learn the values of discipline, trust, compassion, self-reliance and respect,” says its founder.

Helping to fund the foundation is Jason’s new book released in August, Running on Faith. It is Jason’s story of triumph as an “ultra endurance athlete” with the use of one arm, while recognizing God’s guiding hand in his life. Lester shares the nine lessons that led him to achieve his dreams and find his calling.

“In the book, I give tools for overcoming adversity with inspiration for never giving up,” says Lester. “I offer ways to win the game of life.”

Also supporting the NEVER STOP Foundation is the new Running on Faith 5K – 10K Race Series, which started in Kona in August and continues in Seattle and Phoenix. In May, Jason and triathlete Rich Roll raised over $3,500 by finishing the EPICS Challenge; it involved five Ironman-distance triathlons in five days on five different islands.

“The idea is for athletes to continue racing to raise NEVER STOP funds,” says Jason. The next race is September 26 in Seattle. Lester’s dream is to ultimately fund the creation of the NEVER STOP Performance Center in Kailua-Kona in 2012.

Jason’s experience in the Hawai‘i Ultraman World Championships is being made into a 90-minute documentary, A Painted Race. Also entering production is an indie feature film detailing Lester’s extraordinary life and titled, Chasing Me (www.chasingmemovie.com)

As a motivational speaker for organizations and corporations such as Microsoft, Lester also shares his story on overcoming adversity through faith. In the hospital back in Phoenix, he offers his time speaking to injured youth.

“When I was 12 and in the hospital for three months, no one understood my situation…what I was going through physically and emotionally. So I make a point now of going back and talking to youth and sharing my experience. I tell them they can overcome it. I share my testimony. I’ve never let my situation keep me from being an athlete and an artist.”

Jason adds that if he hadn’t lost the use of his arm, he wouldn’t be who he is today. He would have missed out on the many physical, mental and spiritual challenges. And he may never have believed in miracles—like getting the feeling back in his arm.

“At first it was a slight feeling but then I was getting more and more feeling, and then movement, in my right arm,” shares Jason. “It’s like the nerves are coming back in my arm and moving down to my elbow. I didn’t believe it at first and I finally showed a friend how I could stand up on my bike out of my seat to ride a hill. I can use my arm to balance myself. He got it on film.”

Jason continues, “Never doubt God; everything is his timing. It just goes to show you, you can’t lose faith.”

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Lester Art Has No Boundaries

Besides being a recognized athlete, Jason P. Lester is an accomplished artist. Both his father and grandfather were artists and Jason says he inherited their gift for painting. In 2001, he opened the JR Gallery in Manhattan Beach, Calif, featuring his art and works of others.

“Art is my drug,” states Lester. “God is love and love is art.” He paints in the style of abstract expressionism, also calling it “grunge” and “something you might see when traveling on the subway.”

“It’s whatever I’m seeing and feeling in that moment,” Jason explains.

Lester does bold and vibrant, large-scale paintings and also mixed-media murals that incorporate items he picks up on Ebay, like a baseball mitt for a series on the New York Yankees.

“I don’t have boundaries or limits with my art,” adds Jason. “I think outside the box. It’s the same thing as being an athlete. We don’t put limits on ourselves.”

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Check out Lester’s art at www.jplart.com.

Contact Fern Gavelek at ferng@hawaii.rr.com.