While ice climbing near Lake Placid in 2014, I met Aly and Aaron Courain who have become my favorite adventure couple. What I like most about them is their drive for learning and growing. It is the source of their motivation to explore new sports and adventures.

Aly describes herself as a small-town girl from central Pennsylvania. She studied Pharmaceutical Marketing at DeSales University and then earned an MBA at Kutztown University. Aaron hails from the suburbs of northern New Jersey and received his Mechanical Engineering degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Aaron has worked in engineering consulting and aerospace manufacturing. Aly has been in non-profit small business development, healthcare communications and manufacturing. They constantly found themselves leaving New Jersey and heading north on weekend trips, and so the Capital Region became the perfect base camp for their adventurous lifestyle. Not too many people relocate to New York because of the climate, but Aaron told me, “We always felt like the winters were too short in New Jersey.” They both found jobs at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory in Schenectady, because they have to do everything together!

Their first date was indoor rock climbing. Their second date was mountain biking. Next, it was on to hiking, backpacking, camping, kayaking, paddle-boarding, skiing, snowboarding and ice climbing. Aly’s primary sport is cycling. Their first bike tour was from Miami to Key West on their honeymoon. They rode approximately 180 miles over four days at a pace that allowed them to explore the Keys. On day one, they got caught in a storm at dusk, and it poured. What a way to start a marriage! The trip was an exciting journey of ‘expect the unexpected.’ It is the reason they fell in love with the bike touring method of exploring. Aly thinks it set the stage for what to expect in their marriage too. They look forward to their bike tour each year.

Aaron has always been fascinated with mountains, and watching the Eco Challenge on TV back in middle school introduced him to the world of adventure racing. Adventure racing is his thing! It is multisport endurance event where coed teams use a map and compass to navigate to orienteering points through an unmarked course. Modes of travel involve mountain biking, trail running, trekking, paddling, and often bushwhacking. Races can be as short as three to four hours or as long as 10 days! Teams are completely self-supported and must carry everything they need including food, hydration and gear; they can’t rely on any help outside the race organization.

What is unique about adventure racing is little is known about the course before race day. In most cases when you register, a team only knows where the race starts, how long to expect to be on course, and what equipment to bring. The race really begins at the registration table when you get the race map. At this point, the team reviews the course and then comes up with a strategic plan for the best route. Unlike triathlons, where athletes expect to do three sports in succession, adventure racing has many legs, transitions, and going between different modes of travel. For example, you could be portaging a boat between waterways, or even transporting a bike in a canoe between trails. The limits of the course are up to the race director. For Aaron, the big appeal of adventure racing is not only being challenged physically and mentally, but exploring new areas that he most likely would never have known about.

Aaron also directs races for the New York Adventure Racing Association, and most recently directed a seven-hour event in Thacher State Park. Teams paddled kayaks on Thompson’s Lake, biked single- and double-track trails through the park, and explored on foot with an orienteering map. A race director’s job is to deliver a great experience that’s worthy of an athlete’s time and money. The most rewarding aspects of being race director is listening to the post-race stories and all the challenges the teams overcame.   

For Aly, adventure racing is much more than just racing. Once Aaron introduced her to the sport, it opened her eyes to exploring the same area in multiple ways. Most importantly, she has found the adventure racing community to be the most welcoming, down-to-earth, supportive, and friendly she has ever experienced as an athlete.

For beginners, she recommends first trying out local orienteering events. The Adventure Racing Cooperative is an excellent resource of information including a comprehensive list and map of races within the United States. Each race provides concise information on suggested gear and mandatory gear. She points out a common misconception is the myth that everyone is racing all out for six to 12 hours. The reality is that each team is racing at their own pace. This is a sport where slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Aly and Aaron love it because it blends trail running, mountain biking, paddling, climbing, orienteering, and even aspects of mountaineering. Adding in the team and endurance variable creates a much more complex sport and makes it so that they are never having the same experience twice at an adventure race.

The one common denominator between all of the things Aaron enjoys is the mountains. Each range has its own personality, and he feels blessed to have been able to climb many ranges in the US and even overseas. The Matterhorn in Switzerland has been an iconic mountain for his entire life, and he decided to get it done for his 30th birthday. Aly joined him on an acclimatization climb on the nearby Breithorn. On his summit bid, all his training paid off as he was able to move swiftly up the Hornli Ridge to the top, and then back down in time to join Aly for lunch at the Hornli Hut.

Aly is very clear about one thing – she is “so NOT a runner!” That’s one reason why she is most proud of her performance at the 2016 Rough Trail 50K along Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. They trained together, then met other friends in Kentucky. The elevation started to take its toll, and she didn’t stay on top of her eating and hydrating. With a few miles to go, Aly gave it her all, and was one of the last to finish. She knew the ultra would be a huge challenge, but she was so pleased with her persistence.

In 2018, Aaron had his best race at the four-day Untamed New England Adventure Race. It is a mere 300-mile course from the mountains in Maine to the ocean in New Hampshire. The route is so complicated and so long that much can go wrong. His team, NYARA/MontBell, battled huge elevation changes, heat, thunderstorms, strong tides, horrible bugs, and some of the densest bushwhacks in the Northeast. (BTW – these people are paying big bucks for this level of punishment!)

Together, they beat every monumental challenge they encountered, and got each other through the ordeal. For Aaron, this is the heart of adventure racing – relying on the combined strength of your team to overcome huge challenges. They placed seventh overall! He told me adventure racing is an addiction; personally, I think he should seek treatment.

Next up for Aaron will be racing the NYARA Longest Day, a 36-hour adventure race in western New York in September. Aly’s long-term goal is the 90-miler Adirondack Canoe Classic. With Aaron in the roll of ‘adventure idea mill’ and with Aly handling most of the execution, this couple have created an authentic life well-lived.

Remember my friends, life’s a playground, so play on it every day and make stuff like adventure racing happen!

Tom Denham (careersintransition@yahoo.com) is a career counselor, motivational speaker, and enthusiastic high adventurer. He loves to share his passion for high altitude mountaineering, kayaking, curling and especially ice and rock climbing with others, but only when he is not trying to win his age group in running, duathlons and triathlons.