HUMAN

Name: John Runkle
Age: 65
Residence: Nikolai, Alaska

Occupation: Master Licensed Guide; outsdoorsman.

Years involved with Iditarod: 39

Iditarod Role: Volunteer

Current Location: Nikolai, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 11, 2020
Temperature: 2F/Outdoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I got involved with the Iditarod by actually just becoming a resident of the village of Nikolai in 1979. So the race coming through in 1980, it was inevitable. It’s just a community event. The first native village checkpoint on the race trails, so you’re going to be involved in it one way or the other. It’s coming through town.

What is your Why?..Why are you here today and involved in Iditarod?

I’m here today and involved with the Iditarod because it’s a great event to be part of. It’s a number of different people that over the years my family and I have become to know well, Iditarod mushers coming through year after year, other new people coming. It’s a great sport, dog mushing. It’s one of the toughest, most grueling events on the face of the earth that a person can put themselves under, and it’s just something I like doing.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was many, many years ago when Joe Redington, Sr. used to come racing through here and always stayed at the home of my father-in-law and mother-in-law, Philip and Dora Esai. Well, this was in the days when people would stay at homes rather than in the corralling system that they have together now. Joe came in and had been in a pretty good crash with this sled, and so we had brought the sled and all of his gear and everything inside. And he was looking pretty doggone beat. We were sitting around the wood stove drinking some hot Tang, which was one of his favorites. He said, man, I could use a back rub right now, and my reply was, “Joe, turnaround, I’m going to give you a back rub.” Sat there for about 30 minutes giving him a neck massage, back rub, shoulder rub down. We all drink hot Tang and, yeah, that’s something I’ll probably never forget. Father of the Iditarod, and it just seemed kind of natural.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is, there’s God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. If we live our lives according to his word, we’re promised a home in the heavenly kingdom when we leave this world, no matter what we’ve been put through, no matter how we’ve been tested. And my philosophy is, if it turned out that it wasn’t true, which I don’t think, I’ve lived a better life because of it.