This is an interview with Aaro Heinonen, one of the founders of a group called TriVegan.

OrganicAthlete: When and where TriVegan begin?

Aaro Heinonen: We started the group in Indianapolis in 1991.

OA: Why did the group form?

AH: My wife and I thought that it would give a bit of publicity to the fact that one need not eat meat to be a "serious" athlete.

OA: How many members does/did TriVegan have? What kinds of events did they participate in?

AH: Three of us started the group, and it is still only the three of us as we really did not want to organize a big group. We wanted to compete as vegetarian athletes in team competition triathlon. Mike (the designated runner) and myself also competed in Duathlon, and we won every race we entered. My wife Dr. Brenda Nicodemus and I also participated in solo tris and dus, in addition to every running event including marathon.

OA: Is your group still active? If so, how can people find out more?

AH: We are still active, but have not competed as a team in competition for some time. All of us still compete in events solo and we still use our team jerseys, singlets, etc. We don't have a web site or anything like that.

OA: In what ways did TriVegan promote a vegan lifestyle?

AH: We basically wanted to advertise that vegetarians could not only participate, but win events. We were fortunate that right after we started the local Indy paper did a big feature article on us, with pictures and veggie recipes that we used. Beyond having our team name listed in winner columns we did not seek out extra press. In long running events, I would pen "vegetarian athlete" on the back of my legs and our Team Tri Vegan singlets and sweats got people talking. Many people at events were interested in being or trying vegetarian diets and so had many questions, the most common being...you guessed it.

What response did you get from other triathletes?

AH: Triathletes are a great bunch of people, generally open to new ways of thinking and training, unlike the more traditional runners and very traditional, stuck in the box cyclists, so the response was always good and open. We talked with many people about being vegetarian.