The glam influencer who drowned during a Texas Ironman swim had been battling the flu – but ignored pals who begged her to pull out of the brutal endurance race, according to one friend.

“She was ill before the trip, she wasn’t okay,” Luis Taveira said of close friend Mara Flávia, 38, who died during Saturday’s race in The Woodlands.

“My wife and I spoke with her to say she was too weak for this race, although a couple of days ago when we talked to her, she insisted she was okay,” Taveira said of the Brazil-born influencer, according to sports website the Spun.

“I still cannot believe what’s happened. She was ill because of the flu.”

Flávia continued “training hard” even while “weakened” by her illness, the friend said.

Just two days before the competition, Flávia shared a picture of herself in a pink swimming costume and cap sitting by the edge of a pool.

“Just another day at work,” she wrote in Portuguese.

Her Instagram account was peppered with snaps, showing her working out in a gym, by the pool, or running outdoors.

“Not every victory is photogenic, not every growth is pretty to watch. Sometimes evolving is being silent, stepping back, saying no, crying in the background, and coming back the next day more aware,” she said in one motivational post.

In others, she said that skill “only develops with hours and hours of work” and sport is “the best tool for transformation.”

The Ironman Texas competition features three legs — a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. The women’s event got underway just after 6:30 a.m. Saturday, with fire crews alerted around an hour later that there was a lost swimmer.

Flávia’s body was found around 9 a.m. in about 10 feet of water.

Officials have ruled her preliminary cause of death was drowning, and relatives have paid tribute.

Flávia’s sister, Melissa Araújo, said her sibling “lived life intensely” – and revealed a piece of her had vanished, People reported.

“You were always synonymous with determination, with courage — with a strength that seemed too vast to be contained within you,” she wrote on social media.

“You never did anything halfway; perhaps that is why you left such a profound mark on the lives of everyone who crossed your path.

“A piece of me is gone, and I will have to learn to live without it. And it hurts in a way I cannot even explain. 

“It is a strange silence, a void I knew existed all along — as if the world itself had lost a little of its color.”

Flávia’s partner, Rodrigo Ferrari, described the swimmer as his “love” and said not waking up next to her was hard.

“Ursa, you were the best person I have ever met in my life,” he wrote in a note shared on social media.

A Brazilian fitness influencer has died after getting into difficulty during the swimming portion of an ironman event in Texas.

Mara Flavia Souza Araujo was reported as a “lost swimmer” around 7.30am at the Ironman Texas in Lake Woodlands near Houston on Saturday. According to KPRC 2 News, safety crews could not immediately locate Araujo. The 38-year-old’s body was discovered around 90 minutes later in 10ft of water by divers. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department confirmed her identity in a statement to NBC on Monday.

“MCSO can confirm that Mara Flavia Souza Araujo, 38, of Brazil died while competing in the Ironman event in The Woodlands on Saturday,” the sheriff’s department told NBC News. “Preliminary investigations indicate she drowned during the swimming portion of the event.”

Araujo was an experienced triathlete and had completed at least nine ironman events since 2018. She had more than 60,000 followers on Instagram and had posted about the importance of making the most out of life in the days before her death.

“Enjoy this ride on the bullet train that is life,” she wrote in Portuguese. “And even with the speed of the machine blurring the landscape, look out the window – for at any moment, the train will drop you off at the eternal station.”

Organizers of the race expressed their condolences on Saturday.

“We send our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the athlete and will offer them our support as they go through this very difficult time,” race organizers said in a statement on Saturday. “Our gratitude goes out to the first responders for their assistance.”

A glamorous triathlete who drowned during an Ironman competition in Texas shared a photo from a swimming pool during a final training session just two days before the tragic race.

Brazilian influencer Mara Flávia, 38, shared the shot of her on the edge of a pool on Thursday — two days before she vanished during an open-water swim in The Woodlands Saturday morning.

“Just another day at work,” Flávia, 38, wrote in Portuguese alongside the pic of her wearing a matching pink swimming costume and cap.

The influencer, who had more than 60,000 followers online, chose the Robin S track “Show Me Love” for her post with the hashtags “triathlon,” “swimming” and “triathlete.”

Flávia vanished during an open-water swim in The Woodlands Saturday morning – the first of three grueling trials that competitors face during the 140-mile race.

Fire crews were told about a “lost swimmer” at around 7:30 a.m., one hour into the pro-female swim, KPRC reported.

Rescuers battled challenging visibility conditions before Flávia’s body was pulled from the water just after 9:30 a.m. 

Montgomery County Sheriffs confirmed that the victim “drowned while participating in the swim portion of the event,” according to a statement. The office said its Major Crimes unit will continue the investigation “per normal protocols.”

Shawn McDonald, a volunteer, recounted the commotion before the swimmer’s body was recovered.

The dad, who volunteered with his daughter Mila, 12, said a group of younger volunteers in a kayak raised a flag and blew their whistles, “yelling for help.”

“I heard them say she went under,” he wrote on Facebook. 

“I had Mila hand me the paddle and I started calling out to the athletes around us to stop so I could cross. I made my way over in about 30 seconds.

“When I got there and asked what happened, 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.”

The volunteer recalled how one man had a “thousand-yard stare” on his face – before diving into the water in a desperate bid to find Flávia.

“I dove in immediately and began searching. After about a minute underwater, I felt her body with my foot. I surfaced, took what seemed like the deepest breath I have ever taken and went back down. She was gone.”

Boats with sonar combed the area – and McDonald was told to leave the water before the body was recovered.

“The victim was found in about 10 feet of water on the bottom of the lake,” Buck said. “The dive team accessed the victim, brought her up about 9:37 and then brought her over to the shore where she was pronounced DOS [deceased on scene],” Palmer Buck, the Woodlands fire chief, said.

It’s not known what caused the triathlete to go under the water.

Journalism grad Flávia previously worked in radio and television before pursuing a sporting career at age 28.

She previously twice won the Brazilian Grand Prix, and finished third in the Brasilia triathlon event.