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What would you do if time felt short? We sit down with endurance athlete and clinician Jonathan Pascual to explore how a rare cancer diagnosis reshaped his relationship with pain, purpose, and community. From the start, Jonathan’s story defies the usual arc: he built a free backyard ultra that drew 600 people and raised nearly $90,000 for paraganglioma research, precisely because removing barriers created a bigger impact. His pre-race challenge—love harder, serve others, embrace discomfort—turns a run into a mission.
Jonathan opens up about living with metastases across his spine, skull, ribs, and pelvis, and why movement is medicine when practiced with care. He breaks down how attention, breath, and low-intensity training can push pain into the background without glorifying suffering. Then he brings us to Kona. Halfway through the Ironman swim, the math said he was done. Venous compression made horizontal breathing brutal. Cameras and kayaks followed the last swimmer. He chose to continue anyway—stroke by stroke, flipping to breathe—reaching shore with minutes to spare and crying for the chance to go on.
Threaded through his story is Stoic wisdom—memento mori as a daily compass—and a layered identity that doesn’t crumble when sport is stripped away. We talk about building a community-first event, protecting its soul while scaling, and the fundraising model that keeps donations where they matter. Most of all, Jonathan leaves us with a playbook anyone can use: start with courage, ask for help, and make the first step so easy you’ll do it tomorrow, and the next day.
If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to help more people find it. Your one small action today might be the ripple someone else needs.
Check out JP’s Backyard Ultra: https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/Napa/JPsBackyardUltraHike
Want to get more info or become part of the mission:
https://linktr.ee/jonathanpascual?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=5198111e-a050-4646-a892-e11b5f0ef278
Follow Jonathan on IG:
https://www.instagram.com/jpconbrio?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==