Meet the Vandermeer family. This is not your typical family. Yes they have four boys. Yes all four boys have a lot of energy. But what really separates this family from all the rest is that the entire family competes in triathlons. All of them! Every single one of them competes in swimming, biking, and running for miles.
Not only that, but they all typically win medals in their own classes. How did this start? We started dating and living a triathlon lifestyle together in California. Within a year and half, we completed Ironman Korea and Western Australia, then got married, pregnant, and decided to start a family in Santa Cruz.
Looking back, the boys βKees 13, Nico, 11, Louie ,8, and Thys, 5β doing triathlons seems like a very natural progression. Since Dennis still trains longer distances, they have had the opportunity to very much be a part of his training. As they got older, they would bike with Dennis while he was on long runs, carrying his nutrition. From the time our oldest was 7 months old, he has watched Dennis race the Ironman World Championships in Kona nine times.
All the boys have had the experience of watching their father in Kona. There are so many lessons in this sport. It is very much the fabric of our family and we feel very fortunate that we have the opportunity to expose them to this sport as more of a healthy lifestyle. They all started triathlon around years old. The boys were always excited to start because they watched us and their older siblings do it for so long and now it was their turn. Especially in the early years, there were never any structured training plans, just getting out there and swimming, biking, running and having fun whenever we could.
All the boys regularly finish on the podium at the series races. They also cheer for each other on the course since they race by age group. Thys races last, so the older brothers always run with the younger ones. Since Kees is getting older, he is transitioning to the adult sprint races. As the boys get older, there has been a natural progression to workouts.
