HUMAN

Name: Michael Nosko
Age: 63
Residence: Marana, Arizona
Occupation: Retired from the oil and gas industry

First Year Ran Iditarod: 1996

Years involved with Iditarod: 5 years 

Iditarod Role: Musher
Current Location: Marana, Arizona

Date of Photo: January 19, 2026
Temperature: 62F

What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?

What I love about running sled dogs was the time that I got to spend with them. There were so many magical moments out on the trail that really I can’t list them all, but the time and being with the dogs, we formed a real bond. And I feel like there was a great trust relationship between me and my team, and that’s what I really enjoyed.

Question 2: What, who or how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?

Well, I got involved running the Iditarod actually when I was in third grade. My geography teacher took a trip up there. I was in Pennsylvania and she came back, and that year we studied about it. And we saw… I remember Susan Butcher as the years were going on and I remember seeing, in Pennsylvania, back then you didn’t get a lot of news on the Iditarod, but I remember interviews with Susan Butcher, the occasional ones we could catch. And when I finally made it to Alaska, I would go down to Tudor Track because that was very close. And of course, everybody had a dog for me from the Sprint team. But anyways, so yeah, I started out just hanging out at the Sprint kennel or the Sprint track, and my desire to travel with the dogs and do more, just kind of a natural progression led me to Iditarod.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable experiences running the Iditarod:

 

My most memorable Iditarod experience was running… We were on the Yukon River. Hailey’s Comet was out and because of poor trail conditions and the ice, they had moved the trail up onto the bank. And we were running down the bank, the moon was out. It was a beautiful starlit at night, Hailey’s Comet, and we were being paced by a pack of wolves down on the Yukon. And so, my dogs could definitely sense them and I was just watching them and it was just, to me, that was just really incredible.

What in life do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is that you need to take a chance, follow what it is you may want to do, and that way you might not have any regrets that you didn’t try something, because it’s better definitely to have tried and failed than not have tried at all.