UH Manoa alum with terminal cancer battles to Ironman finish

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

Just competing in the event is an achievement, but this race had special meaning for a former Hawaiian resident who fought every step of the way to the finish.

Jonathan Pascual has been an endurance athlete for more than 30 years.

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

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

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

Pascual later moved to the Bay Area after graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nurse.

In 2022 he received a heartbreaking diagnosis.

“My cancer is called mediastinal paraganglioma,” Pascual said. “It is a neuroendocrine form of cancer. It is one of the, let’s say rarest of the rare, where two to 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 five-year survival rate of less than 50%, Pascual was determined to stay active.

With the help of treatment and medication, he is still allowed to train and has been preparing for the Ironman for months.

Due to his condition, he cannot lie on his stomach for extended periods of time, making the 3-mile swim the most harrowing part of the event.

“The longer I’m 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 crawl towards the end, and I was really struggling with my breathing, and I thought my head was going to explode.

Pascual was racing for his life and against the clock, as the swim has a duration of 2 hours and 20 minutes.

He reached land with just two minutes to spare.

“It was only that part of the race that I allowed myself to be emotional,” Pascual said. “I actually cried because, Jonathan, you actually have a shot at completing the Kona Ironman Championship because you set your goal to go under the cutoff.”

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

After refueling it started to gain strength.

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

Then, just before midnight, pure elation as 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 people write you off if you have stage four cancer. People think you’re done. You will get the death penalty,” Pascual said.

“I believe this is a myth and I am here to challenge that idea,” he said. “That’s why I thought moving forward, I come from a place of giving and all I have to do is do the things I’ve been doing all along.”

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