Jason Lester
“Chasing Me”
Its halloween night 1987, 12 year old Jason Lester is riding his bike when he is hit by a car traveling 80 miles per hour and thrown over 130 feet in the air. He lives but his right arm is paralyzed. During rehabilitation, his 39 year old father suffers a heart attack and dies and Jason ends up living with his grandmother. His Dad had been his (athletic) coach all his life, when he died Jason decided he needed to make a decision: that he was either going to go “north” or “south” in his life and he chose the path to use everything his Dad had taught him in his 12 years to become the best athlete that he still could possibly be.
At the age of 13 Jason tried out for his high school football team, it wasn’t long before Jason was winning the starting position over other (healthier) kids. At the end of his freshman football year Jason received from his coach the “ironman award”. His coach said “if everybody on the team had the heart that you have we would have won every game”. Also as a freshman he played baseball and batted 300, did I mention he only has the use of one arm?
In his junior year his baseball coach told him “you come in first every time you guys get in trouble and I make you do laps, have you ever thought about running track?”. He took that seriously and started running cross country and track. He went on to do 60 biathlons, and 5 & 10k marathons by the time he was 22 years old.
In 2004 he went to Kona to watch the ironman. This was a great inspiration to Jason, he told himself “you are the ironman” so he moved to Kona to train. When he approached a swimming coach in Kona for training lessons for the triathlon she chuckled but loved his determination and told him “meet me at the pool in 3 days”. As Jason puts it “I lived, ate and slept the ironman.” Jason crossed the finish line at the ironman on his first attempt with a time of 12 hours 38 minutes, at the finish line he told himself I’m going to be back next year and finish in 11 hours.
People routinely walk up to him and ask to shake his hand because he is such an inspiration to others. Currently there is a book deal in the works and a movie being made on his life story called Chasing Me.
In 2007 Jason founded the never stop foundation which is dedicated to using athletics as a tool to encourage all youth to have the chance to achieve their full potential.
I love this quote from Jason Lester;
“I believe that one of the most beautiful gifts that we’re given is the ability to help others, to inspire others, to share the love that we have instilled in our hearts. I think we’re all an inspiration to people and I think that that’s the beauty of life.”
Jason Lester, JUST DO IT ANYWAY
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