When Lyra Pascual, BBA ’17, a senior accountant at Nakupuna Companies, volunteered at the Ironman World Championship in 2024, an idea took root. Watching athletes cross the finish line, she wondered if she could do the same. There was a small problem –– she didn’t know how to swim. “Maybe some day,” she told herself.
Fast forward to a few months later when Pascual was talking with a friend and telling him that she wanted to learn to swim. He mentioned they should sign up for the Ironman together and she said, “if you do, I will.” And with that encouragement, they both signed up for their first race.
Pascual enlisted the help of Shidler College’s Director of Internship and Career Development Rick Varley and joined his TripleFit triathlon group. Varley has been an endurance coach for more than 25 years, his experience shaped by his own background as a collegiate sprinter. He says that even strong runners and cyclists often underestimate the swimming component. He also recognized immediately how determined she was, more than any athlete he’d ever worked with.
Lyra in Barcelona in October 2025.
Varley was the first person to encourage her to get in the water. She said she was starting at zero and couldn’t put her face in the water at the beginning. “We didn’t work on strokes at first,” Varley said. “We just worked on breathing.” Learning to swim as an adult tested her in ways she hadn’t anticipated and Pascual felt as if everyone around her belonged there except her.
When Michelle Simmons became her Ironman coach, she helped shift her mindset from “I’m not a water girl” to “I’m becoming a water girl.” With Varley’s and Simmons’ coaching –– and the encouragement of those around her ––Pascual’s confidence grew and she signed up for the North Shore Swim Series to face the longer distances that terrified her.
During the first 1.2 mile race –– with a racing heart –– she stopped. Her thoughts were trying to convince her she wasn’t ready. But she reframed them and looked toward the rocks at Waimea Bay at Oahu’s famed North Shore and told herself, “just make it between them.” And she did, along with completing two other races. “For the first time, I didn’t question whether I belonged there,” she said.
In October 2025, just one year after learning to swim, Pascual achieved her goal when she crossed the finish line at the Ironman Calella-Barcelona race. Her long training hours in biking, running –– and especially swimming –– came to head when faced with choppy ocean conditions during the already hardest stretch of the 140.6-mile race.
“For a few seconds, I genuinely thought, ‘This is it. I’m not going to make the cut-off,” she said.
Varley notes that even highly trained athletes sometimes withdraw when faced with cold, choppy water, despite years of preparation and significant travel. Pascual did the opposite and confronted the conditions directly and committed to finishing.
During the most arduous part of the race, Pascual repeated the same line over and over. “You fought too hard to learn to swim,” she told herself. “You don’t stop now.” And stroke by stroke she pushed on.
Pascual credits her Shidler education with developing the critical thinking, communication and accountability skills that support her career. Ironman training further sharpened her time management and resilience, reinforcing her belief that growth is possible from any starting point.
“If you're willing to learn, willing to be a beginner and willing to surround yourself with good people, you might just surprise yourself with what you can accomplish.”
