HUMAN
Name: Sean Underwood
Age: 28
Residence: Outside of Denali National Park
Occupation: Dog Handler
Years involved with Iditarod: 3
Iditarod Role: Dog Musher
Current Location: Downtown, Anchorage, Alaska.
Date of Photo: March 7, 2020
Temperature: 15F/Outdoors
What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?
I got involved with Iditarod because of my aunt and uncle. They live right here in Anchorage and I wanted to see a new place. And I thought of them. I called them and they hired me to be part of their commercial fishing crew. And I fell in love with Alaska after spending two summers on Kodiak Island living totally off the grid and having a blast eating some of the best salmon in the world. I mean, it is! And after two summers of doing that, I started thinking about a winter. I just didn’t know where or what to do. And they kept on talking to me about their good friend Jeff King and how he’s won four Iditarods and been in it 20 something times and it all sounded really exciting. So I shot him a text and he wanted to see my resume, which was hilarious. But he ended up hiring me because of that commercial fishing experience. And I fell in love with it right off the bat, the rush of being on the runners the first time. And then now that I’ve gotten a lot of experience over the last few years, that rush has turned into kind of a peace that I find when I’m moving on the runners. It’s really the only time where I feel like I can think clearly is behind that dog team and working for Jeff. And working for Jeff.
It didn’t take very long to get the Iditarod bug going into your first start line. So I started researching what I needed to do to prepare to run the Iditarod one day. And I got qualified with Jeff’s dogs. I would help him train his dogs for the Iditarod by running them in a race in January and February so he could go out in March. And I ran my qualifiers, was planning on running in 2021 but it came a year earlier than I expected.
What is your Why?..Why are you here today and involved in Iditarod?
I’m here today and involved with Iditarod because of a pretty crazy set of circumstances. Jeff King was supposed to run the Iditarod but fell sick and ill Monday night and had emergency surgery and he wanted someone that knew his dogs to take his place. And I was the candidate since I just qualified for the Iditarod and he entrusted me to take over and that’s how I got here today.
I’ve been preparing for this race for several years, but I just wasn’t anticipating this being my year. But I keep coming back to mushing dogs and running these tough races, is because you grow as a person when you challenge yourself and put yourself out of the comfort zone. That’s what really made me leave my hometown is because I wanted to go somewhere where I didn’t know what I was doing and wasn’t familiar with the place or the people or the culture. I like putting myself in that position and I learn the most from that. And being out there with the dogs, it’s just a really special moment, to just a ton of special moments; being able to bond with them out on the trail, which kind of amplifies your connection to the outdoors. And then on top of that you get to go through some really tough moments out there.
But because of the tough moments, you get those incredible highs where you’re just…moments you’ll never forget and feelings you can’t really feel unless you push yourself a little bit. And I imagine, I thought I pushed myself as hard as I could. And some of these Iditarod qualifiers, I imagine I’m going to be going a little bit past that limit here in the next couple of weeks, but I am just so excited to get out there and travel down this historic trail.
Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?
One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was driving the tag sled through downtown behind Jeff King in 2017. And he’d picked me to be back there because I had sled driving experience. And we have pretty technical trails. So I was like, oh, it’s downtown Anchorage; I got this. Well, we went around Fourth and Cordova, this notorious 90-degree turn that a lot of teams had fallen down on. And I think I kind of mismanaged that turn and we ended up just eating it around the first corner of the ceremonial loop. And he let me have it after that when I got back. And it’s just something we constantly talk about. So that’s one of my first really exciting memories.
What do you know for sure?:
And what I know for sure in life is surround yourself with people that love you and do what you enjoy doing. And don’t worry about… as long as you’re having a good time and love waking up every day, the rest is just a bonus. So if you can find a job that you enjoy showing up to work, it’s not really a job.