Remembering to pack her inhaler — something the asthmatic hasn’t always done — allowed the 62- year-old Miltonian to maintain her perfect completion record in the grueling 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run earlier this month in Kona, Hawaii.

With the area’s Kilauea Volcano spewing out thick ash daily since March, Key’s respiratory system took a severe beating — to the point where she had to stop entirely during the bike portion.

“It clouded over with this stuff (volcanic debris) every morning and I didn’t find out until afterwards that people with asthma were actually advised to stay indoors until it dissipated,” noted the longtime Milton Runners club member, who qualified for the world championships by winning her women’s 60-to-64 division at this summer’s Ford Ironman USA Lake Placid. “It was like the layer of smog you get on bad days in Toronto.”

Her airway was so constricted that the first two inhaler shots did nothing to ease the attack, leaving Key concerned about more than just finishing the race.

“I was pretty worried there for a bit, but eventually it cleared up. I had to stop for about a half-hour, which has never happened before. It’s a good thing I took the inhaler.”

As a result, the lone Milton representative came within a minute of missing the 10-and-a-half hour (swim and bike combined) cutoff, coming a too-close-for-comfort 45 seconds under the wire.

From there she made up some time on the run, despite a fairly cautious pace to ward off any further problems, and completed the Ironman in 16:18.49.

This was more than an hour longer than her Lake Placid performance — not her best to begin with, courtesy of a torrential downpour — but given the circumstances Key isn’t too disappointed.

“Had it not been for the attack I’d have finished at least 45 minutes earlier, maybe closer to an hour since I knew I was well within the overall 17-hour cutoff and didn’t push it on the run,” said the local triathlete, who got into long-distance racing a little later in life and has now tamed four Ironmans. “Sometimes it really is just about completing an Ironman.”