Jacqueline LoVerme and Kristin Martin can tackle the running and the swimming and the biking. They can absorb the hours of training that are required for competing in high-level triathlons.

But sometimes they need help with carpool. 

Martin and LoVerme are accomplished triathletes. They also each have large families with lots of athletic kids… and helpful husbands. 

“It’s huge. Mike is incredibly supportive,” Martin said of her husband. “Like tonight, he said ‘I’ll do all those trips, so you don’t have to.’”

Those trips were four round-trips to an athletic complex in Taunton for some of their daughters’ soccer practices. The Martins have three daughters who play multiple sports. 

LoVerme agreed that the support is crucial. She and her husband Will have four children — one son and three daughters — who all play multiple sports.

“For example, this weekend, I’m leaving, taking a day off work. Right after I drop the kids — I do morning carpool on Fridays — and I’m driving down and meeting my parents, they’re going with me to Nationals,” LoVerme said. “Come to find out, Will’s on call this weekend and he’s juggling the triplets … doubleheader with softball. We canceled the soccer game. They have a bah mitzvah to go to. I do feel bad. I don’t know how he’s going to manage.”

Not only do the husbands manage the hectic schedules, their wives completely handle the triathlon competitions. 

LoVerme placed 11th in the recent 2024 USA Triathlon Sprint National Championships and 43rd in the Olympic Distance National Championships in Atlantic City, NJ; Martin placed 97th in her division in the recent 2024 Women’s VinFast Ironman World Championships in Nice, France; and Martin and LoVerme placed 32nd and fifth, respectively, in the 2024 World Triathlon Championships, in Torremolinos, Spain earlier this month. LoVerme also finished fifth in the Sprint Triathlon at the 2024 World Triathlon Championships.

How they got started

LoVerme and Martin are no strangers to sports. LoVerme played field hockey in college and Martin played soccer in college. 

That competitive spirit remained in both even after they started their families. 

“I think I started (competing in triathlons) in 2016,” Martin said. “I was a college soccer player and then was doing marathons a little bit. Had the girls. I was getting hurt from just running all the time, and actually a friend in Barrington — Kristen Van Hull — she’s like, ‘We should do a sprint triathlon, you want to try it?’”

LoVerme started competing in triathlons a few years ago, after she started biking. She actually used her husband’s bike first and began racing around town.

“It was really fun,” she said. Later, LoVerme borrowed a bike from a family friend, Greg Hurlock. 

“Greg had mentioned to me that there was a duathlon,” LoVerme said, referring to a race that features a run, followed by a bike, followed by a run. “It was cold. March maybe. And I’m thinking, ‘Thank God I’m not swimming right now.’ I ended up winning it.”

A short time later, she bumped into Mike Martin, Kristin’s husband, on the sidelines of a youth soccer game their kids were playing in. 

“I was like ‘Hey, where’s Kristin?’ He’s like ‘She’s getting her swim in, she’ll come over after.’ I was kind of jealous,” LoVerme said. 

Before long, Martin and LoVerme were meeting for early morning training swims. 

“We’re pretty consistent swimmers together,” LoVerme said. “We go to Pods in the winter. We go early, like 6 to 7, with a group. We met an awesome group of women and men. Accountability partners, in a way.”

Martin and LoVerme also train in open water — usually in Narragansett Bay — during the summer months. LoVerme said Martin actually taught her how to swim competitively. 

“I never really swam. Kristin taught me how to swim, truly. Truly, truly, totally,” LoVerme said.

“When I first got in the pool with Kristin I was like ‘So, did you do high school swim team?’ She was like ‘No.’ ‘So, how do you know that flip thing?’”

While Martin and LoVerme train together for the swim portion of triathlons, they often go solo for biking and running. And they will squeeze in the hours whenever they can find time. 

“The run’s kind of the easiest part. Swimming is a two-hour ordeal. You have to wake up, you have to get yourself coffee…you’re driving 15 minutes or wherever. You gotta grab bagels for the kids on the way home. It’s a two-hour ordeal,” said LoVerme. “When you’re running, it’s like throw your shoes on and go from your house. Or often times we’re at sports practices (for the kids). We’re at Taunton Kicks and Kristin will be doing laps…”

Right from the start both women have been very successful. LoVerme usually competes in the triathlon sprints, which are shorter distances. They have also competed in the Olympic distances and half-marathon-distance triathlons. Martin has completed marathon-distance triathlons.

In addition to family support, both women also praise the network of triathletes in Barrington and around the Ocean State. They mentioned Lisbeth and Todd Kenyon, Vinu Malik and others. 

“…there’s a really big triathlon community in Rhode Island, and Barrington specifically,” Martin said.