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

Just participating in the event is an accomplishment, but this race held special significance for a former Hawaii resident who fought for every step to the finish line.

For over 30 years, Jonathan Pascual has been an endurance athlete.

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

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

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

Pascual then moved to the Bay Area after graduating from nursing school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Then in 2022, he received a heartbreaking diagnosis.

“My cancer is called mediastinal paraganglioma,” Pascual said. “It is a neuroendocrine type cancer. It’s one of, let’s just say, the rarest of the rare, and two to six people in a million will get it.

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

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

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

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

“The longer I stay in the water, the more my face starts to swell,” Pascual said. “Even my tongue starts to swell and it becomes more and more difficult to breathe. It was basically a ramp towards the very end, and I was having a really hard time breathing, and I thought my head was going to explode.

Pascual raced for his life and against the clock, as the duration of the swim is 2 hours and 20 minutes.

He reached dry land with only two minutes to spare.

“It was only in this part of the race that I allowed myself to be emotional,” Pascual said. “I actually cried because, Jonathan, you have a chance to finish the Kona Ironman Championship because you set your goal to go under the threshold.”

Pascual biked the 112 miles and arrived at the marathon at 5:30 p.m.

After refueling, he began to regain his strength.

“Going to the energy lab, I felt better and better,” Pascual said. “I said you were doing a good job. You eat and maintain a slow pace. However, you don’t slow down like others. I started meeting people.

Then shortly before midnight, pure exhilaration when Pascual crossed the finish line.

At 16 hours and 2 minutes, he says it’s his slowest career time, but it’s the best Ironman he’s ever done and he’s not stopping.

“This idea that when you have stage four cancer, people write you off. People think you’re done. You are sentenced to death,” Pascual said.

“I believe it’s a myth and I’m here to challenge that idea,” he said. “That’s why, moving forward, I thought I was coming from a place of generosity and all I had to do was just do the things I had been doing all along.”

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

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