THOUSAND YARD STARE

Triathlete Drowns During First Part of 140-Mile Ironman Race

A volunteer has recounted his horror.

A triathlete has drowned during an Ironman race in Texas. Brazilian Mara Flávia, 38, vanished as she was completing the swimming section of this year’s 140-mile route in Lake Woodlands on Saturday. Woodlands Township Fire Department boss Palmer Buck told Click2Houston that they were called to reports of a “lost swimmer” at 7.30 a.m., almost an hour after the first section of the women’s event started. He added that rescuers were forced to operate with “zero” visibility because the race was ongoing. She was pulled from the water around two hours later, at which point the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said an investigation had been launched. On Facebook, Shawn McDonald, a volunteer at the event, said he spoke to her fellow competitors: “They all said the same thing: She went under. Right here. Right below us. The panic and fear on their faces won’t leave me for a long time.” “I remember seeing... an older gentleman, maybe in his 60s,” he continued, “hanging onto the side of the kayak, goggles removed, with the widest eyes I have ever seen. A thousand-yard stare. He had just watched someone disappear beneath him.”