With the National Eucharistic Congress approaching this summer, one local Catholic is doing his part to stoke the flames of a Eucharistic revival in his own community. That man is Jimmy Coleman, a member of St. Matthew Parish, who recently ran a 50.6-mile ultramarathon stopping at five area churches for Eucharistic Adoration. His mission? To turn the attention of friends, neighbors and loved ones to the Real Presence of Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament.
Jimmy Coleman begins his 50.6-mile "Adoration Ultra" at St. Mark Church in Huntersville by attending Mass and Eucharistic Adoration with his family. CHARLOTTE — Running three ultramarathons in 30 days is bold, even for an aspiring professional athlete.
Yet that’s just what Jimmy Coleman – husband, father and business owner – did on Dec. 30, Jan. 20 and Jan. 26.
The final race was the pièce de resistance, however, upping his audacity factor to a whole new level. Coleman dubbed it an “Adoration Ultra.”
Beginning at St. Mark in Huntersville on a rainy Friday morning, he took off on a 50-mile journey to visit five Charlotte-area churches to participate in Eucharistic Adoration, all while bearing a white and red flag emblazoned with “Eat my flesh” and “Drink my blood” (Jn 6:54-56) on either side.
These messages certainly drew interest from those along his course, Coleman says, noting the reactions were overwhelmingly positive because people recognized that, although startling, they were in fact verses from the Bible. With at least 100 “supportive honks” from passersby, Coleman says he felt he made a difference, making people think. The only negative reaction seemed to come from drivers behind those slowing down to look at his sign, he says.
A man from a non-denominational Christian church stopped Coleman, and they talked for 10 minutes.
“He didn't know what the what the Eucharist was, and I said, ‘I'm trying to create awareness of how the early Christians celebrated the Eucharist. I encourage you to look into it and come to your own conclusion one way or another. I just want people to become aware of what it is that over a billion Christians believe,’” he says.
Coleman also said he wants Catholics to remember what we already have and be inspired to deepen devotion to the Eucharist — the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ made truly present during the consecration at Mass.
The run took a lot of prayer and planning since there was no previous structure for such an event.
“Running events are often used as awareness events,” Coleman says. “I thought this would be just a really cool way to fuse my faith and what I’m trying to do on the pro-athlete side of things.”
Coleman adds that he’s always been open about his faith during competitions, and he’s increasing his reliance on God as he seeks professional sponsorships.
“People see me praying beforehand,” he says. “I mention my beliefs as I’m narrating things, but it’s not in your face, but then the Adoration Ultra is totally in your face with the intention of bringing attention to the Eucharist and giving historical context to it, so some of the draw is educational and some of it is people seeing the reverence we place before the Blessed Sacrament.”
After Mass and Eucharistic Adoration at St. Mark, Coleman ran on sidewalks, roads and soggy uneven grass to four stops at Charlotte churches: St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Vincent de Paul, St. John Neumann and St. Matthew. It was a windy day, which made it easy for people to see what was on his flag but harder to control it as he experienced a level of exhaustion that evoked Christ’s road to Calvary.
A member of St. Matthew and the owner of a marketing agency, Coleman is a father of two with another on the way. He says his motivation is being the best father he can be by giving a good example of faith and perseverance to his children, who inspired his reversion to the Catholic faith in 2021.
“Seven years ago, I moved out of being part of the parish council of my small church in Virginia. When I came to Charlotte, I had a hard time finding my footing,” he recalls. “My friends were going to all the popular Protestant churches. There was a period of time when I would go to three different church services at three different churches every weekend.”
He says he fell away from his Catholic faith around 2017 and then reverted back around the time his first son was born nearly three years ago.
“I wanted to be intentional about whatever I was passing on to him, even if it wasn’t Christianity at all, so I looked at all the debates between people of faith and atheists and heard the arguments. I was a little worried that logic would lead me away from Catholicism and Christianity, but it actually led me toward it.”
Once Coleman decided that he believed in Christ’s resurrection, he worked his way back to the events that occurred before to decide which denomination of Christianity he would pass on. It was the Institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper that sent him back to the Catholic faith.
“First off, it is such a major claim that in every Mass Jesus is there,” he says. “It’s the largest Christian denomination, and the Church's stance is that the actual Body and Blood of Jesus is there through the consecration at Mass. That's just something you can't ignore, you can't look away from. You either have to determine you don't believe it and be intentional in that disbelief, or that it is true.”
Coleman’s friends joined him for stints along his Adoration Ultra course. Jim Keffer, owner of Keffer Auto Group, joined him on his 9.4-mile run from St. Vincent Church to St. John Neumann, and his friend Michael Acosta ran 12.2 miles with him from St. John to St. Matthew Church.
“Both are great Catholic men and gave me strength at the end,” he says. “Michael prayed every prayer he could remember for me as we ran while I only had the breath to say, ‘Amen.’”
At each stop, Coleman refueled physically and spiritually.
He says he approached Adoration at each location from a humble place as he was physically drained – not only running an ultramarathon but carrying the flag featuring that particularly striking portion of the Bread of Life discourse, making the run markedly more difficult. By the time he reached his home parish, he was 12 hours into the run and more than two hours behind schedule, but that didn’t matter.
“Seeing how even before the run happened it was already starting to spread and inspire people, I felt grateful and honored that something I was capable of could draw people closer to God,” Coleman says. “He was allowing me to use my gifts to serve Him.”
For more information about Coleman’s Adoration Ultra, visit www.adorationultra.com. For details on the National Eucharistic Congress, go to www.eucharisticcongress.org.
— Annie Ferguson. Photos by Troy Hull.
