On day 83 of his 3,500-mile, 100-day run across America, Jonathan Kuplack looked fresh.
Two hours after completing a 35-mile mountainous slog through wind and rain, the 36-year-old Kuplack stood before a crowd of 150 at Reitano Vineyards in Front Royal to talk about helping young men flourish through adventure, brotherhood, physical challenge, and prayer.
“I want to talk about greatness, I wanna talk about mission, and I wanna talk about how your life is not about you,” said Kuplack, co-founder of the New Mexico-based Sebaste apostolate that designs outdoor, service-based programs for middle, high school and college students. “I’m primarily talking to you guys right here because you’re sitting right next to me. And I wish someone told me this when I was your age. It would’ve changed a lot of things in my life.”
Kuplack is happy to talk about “reclaiming masculinity” but not as a superhero. The “Via Magna” (Latin for “great way”) run, which began in Dana Point, Calif. Jan 18, nearly ended nine days in, when he was stricken with a fever and chills. “I couldn’t get out of bed,” he said, but he willed his way on. Oklahoma was a horror show.
“The winds were just blowing dirt and rocks all over the place,” he said. “I ran an entire day with my head down and my arm up because the wind was blowing so hard that rocks were flying everywhere.”
The Idaho native who grew up with 12 siblings said that what the world desperately needs are men whose masculinity is rooted in Christ. “We don’t have a lot of mission-minded young men in the world today,” said Kuplack. “They’re not thinking about mission, they’re thinking about pleasure because they’re so stuck in the ego drama. When we encounter Jesus Christ, something fundamentally changes in us.”
As word spread about the run, prayer requests began pouring in. Kuplack meditates on the prayer intentions before each day’s run. “You need a bigger reason to run than for yourself or our little organization,” he said. “When you’re running for people that are actually suffering — I don’t suffer, I’m in pain, I’m in discomfort, but I would never call it suffering — but there are people that actually do suffer terminal disease. I read these intentions and you know what? I can run 35 miles for that.”
For Ben Ranieri, it was worth keeping his six- and eight-year-old sons out late on a school night to hear Kuplack. “This is what young men need to hear,” he said. “There’s a lot of malaise in our culture and in the Catholic faith. We need to hold young men to higher standards. Action is one of the things that defines a man and we have to act in order to be men.”
After completing his cross-continental journey at the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, N.Y., Kuplack will resume life as a newlywed. He and Larissa Fedoryka Kuplack married Dec. 12, 2024, in Front Royal and five weeks later, he was on the road.
“Larissa is a total champion,” he said. “This run was planned before we got engaged. So, if I had known what was happening, I might not have done it, but I think this is what God wanted us to do.”
“When you follow God and give your heart completely to him, and say, ‘I trust in you,’ he produces fruit from that,” said Larissa, a classical music instructor in Front Royal. She said they have many of their phone conversations while he’s running, and she joked, “I am excited when we’ll be able to live in the same place.”
Kuplack doesn’t expect that his mind-boggling feat will inspire other men to run across the country, but he is certain of one thing — that every young man has an innate desire to be great.
“There’s greatness in you that God gave you,” he said. “It’s your responsibility to pursue that greatness and be willing to suffer so you can become a saint, serve the people around you, and be the man God wants you to be.”
Hale can be reached at [email protected].
Find out more
For more info on Sebaste programs for young men, go to sebaste.org.
