A UH Manoa graduate with cancer fights to the Ironman finish line

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – More than 2,400 athletes from around the world recently competed in the Ironman World Championships in Kona.

Taking part in the event in itself is an achievement, but the race had special meaning for the former Hawaii resident, who fought every step to the finish line.

Jonathan Pascual has been an endurance athlete for over 30 years.

He has competed in 16 Ironman triathlons, 22 half Ironmans, countless marathons, and even 100-mile ultramarathons.

Pascual’s love of testing boundaries began shortly after he moved to Hawaii as a teenager in the 1990s.

“I love swimming and I was just starting to learn how to ride a bike. We have a cycling community here, we ride around the island and that’s where we started,” Pascual said. “My first marathon was in 2005 at the Honolulu Marathon. With no training, I just signed up for it and did it.

Pascual later moved to the Bay area after graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a nursing degree.

In 2022, he received a heartbreaking diagnosis.

“My tumor is called mediastinal paraganglioma,” Pascual said. “It is a neuroendocrine tumor. This is one of, let’s say, the rarest of the rare cases, where between two and six people in a million will have it.”

Pascual’s cancer is stage four and has spread to his lungs, spine, pelvis and ribs.

Despite a less than 50% five-year survival rate, Pascual was determined to stay active.

With treatment and medication, he was able to continue training and spent months preparing for the Ironman competition.

Due to his condition, he cannot lie on his stomach for long periods of time, which made the 2.4-mile swim the most harrowing part of the event.

“The longer I’m in the water, my face starts to swell,” Pascual said. “Even my tongue is starting to swell and breathing is becoming more and more difficult. It was actually a crawl until the very end, I was really struggling to breathe and I thought my head was going to explode.

Pascual was fighting for his life and against the clock as the time limit for the swim was 2 hours and 20 minutes.

He reached land with just two minutes to spare.

“Only in this part of the race did I allow myself to get emotional,” said Pascual. “I actually cried Jonathan, you really have a chance to finish the Kona Ironman Championship because you set yourself the goal of going under the limit.”

Pascual completed a 180-kilometer bike ride and arrived at the marathon at 5:30 p.m

After refueling, it began to gain strength.

“As I went to the energy lab, I felt better and better,” Pascual said. “I said you’re doing a good job. You eat and keep a pace that is slow. However, you don’t slow down like others. I started passing people.”

Then, just before midnight, pure euphoria as Pascu crossed the finish line.

He says it’s the slowest time of his career at 16 hours and 2 minutes, but it’s the best Ironman he’s ever completed and he has no intention of stopping.

“It’s the belief that when you have stage four cancer, people write you off. People think you’re done. You get a death sentence,” Pascual said.

“I believe this is a myth and I am here to challenge that view,” he said. “So going forward, I thought I came from a place of giving and all I had to do was just keep doing what I had been doing all along.”

If you want to support Pascual’s fight, click here.