Adam Kourakis runs, bikes and snowshoes towards his next adventure

Adam Kourakis in Lansdowne Park, standing in the same spot where he proposed to his wife, Elizabeth Krause, in 2019.

Photo: Alexa MacKie

By Alexa MacKie

The wind chill was -13 C when Adam Kourakis and I met at Lansdowne Park. But Kourakis, sporting a red velofix-branded tuque and a winter jacket, was unbothered by the cold. As a skier, snowshoe racer and co-owner with his wife of Somersault, an event organizer that hosts year-round, multisport races, winter is a busy time of the year.

During the Family Day long weekend, Somersault hosted a race along the Kichi Zībī Mīkan trail. “The weather was like a snow globe all day,” Kourakis said. “Constant snow is challenging, but it wasn’t as challenging as winter can be – in the end it was fun.”

The company offers different distances so runners at all levels can get involved. The Family Day event offered races from one kilometer to a full marathon.

“Starting is the hardest part,” he says. “Someone might see a triathlon on TV and think, ‘those guys have fancy bikes and spandex.’ But if you come to our races, you don’t need those things. It doesn’t need to be as intimidating as it appears.  I think leading a healthy lifestyle, physically and mentally, is incredibly important. Anything we can do to help that is the dream.”

While Somersault hosts some of the biggest races in the Ottawa area, Kourakis’s other project – TriRudy – is a “well-kept secret.”

TriRudy began in the 1990s when local triathlete Rudy Hollywood started a daily email newsletter for area athletes. Eventually, Hollywood trained and completed the Winterlude Triathlon, a marathon, a full iron man, a cycling tour from Ottawa to Kingston and a 50-kilometre cross-country ski course in one year. The email list grew to almost 10,000 people, and the group started giving out the “Rudy Award” in 2001 to those who completed those same five races in a year.

“It’s obviously very hard to do, and it’s not very well known,” Kourakis said. “But if you go to someone’s house for a dinner party, and you see the TriRudy award on their wall, it’s kind of like an inside cult or a secret society.” He took over TriRudy in 2019 and continues to give out the Rudy Award, though he estimates fewer than 100 people remain in the group.

On the motivational power of sport, Kourakis understands what it means to cross the finish line, with all the high-fives and sense of accomplishment. “For some people, [these races] are like their Everest to a certain extent,” he said.

Kourakis recalled a runner who recently raced 10k in honour of his best friend who died 10 years earlier. And a race through Beechwood Cemetery where a grieving runner ran past her father’s gravesite to say another goodbye. “It’s just so powerful hearing these stories and seeing people’s lives change right in front of you,” he said.

After working in bike shops during high school and undergrad, Kourakis graduated University of Ottawa with a bachelor’s degree in human kinetics but wasn’t sure what to do with his life.

Then he saw a segment on velofix on Dragon’s Den in 2014. velofix is a bike shop on wheels, with franchisees across the U.S. and Canada who come to clients in a huge van with the necessary tools to do repairs and tune ups. Kourakis, then 22, signed on and became the Ottawa franchisee by the end of that same week.

“I felt like I was meant to do more than work in a bike shop until retirement,” he said. “This gives me a chance to work with my hands and work with people, get to be outside, and go to events in more locations than one. I really enjoy that this is one customer at a time. I get to talk to my customers for up to an hour, 10 times a day.”

Kourakis keeps busy, as he always has. At university, he competed for uOttawa’s volleyball, track and field and swim teams. In 2013, he was ranked second in Canada in snowshoe racing. “My interest changes every few months,” he said, “Luckily I just love being active.”

While Kourakis still races on skis, snowshoes and bikes, his next challenge is fatherhood. His wife, Elizabeth Krause, was 39 weeks pregnant with their daughter when Kourakis and I spoke.

Kourakis anticipates his love for athleticism will play a “huge part” in his journey as a father. “I can’t wait to run with my daughter on the canal pathways and eventually take her skating,” he said. “I’m sure my daughter will grow up on a bicycle.”

Alexa MacKie is a Carleton student in Journalism and Law, a communications officer and a Glebe Collegiate graduate.