HUMAN

Name: Blair Braverman

Age: 31

Residence: Wisconsin

Occupation:  I’m a writer and a musher

Years involved with Iditarod: 3

Iditarod role: I ran my rookie year last year, and this year I’m covering it for Anchorage Daily News

Current Location: Unalakleet, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 16, 2020
Temperature: 35F/Outdoors

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

I got involved with Iditarod in part because I just read about it so much as a kid. I was a kid in California, and I read all these books about dog sledding and just thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard of. It seemed too cool to be real. And when I was a teenager I went to a dog sledding boarding school in Norway and got into mushing through that. I’ve now been in the sport for 13 years. So when I started getting my own team with my husband, Quince Mountain, we just started running Iditarod qualifiers. Because I didn’t let myself think I was going to run the Iditarod someday, that was too scary, but as long as I was running races, I thought, “Well, my goal will be to qualify for the Iditarod. Not to run it, but to qualify,” and I sort of tricked myself into it.

What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?

I am here today and involved with Iditarod because at this point it’s an essential event in mushing. And I have a lot of friends who are involved. I have my husband, Quince Mountain, is running his rookie race this year. I was really excited to get out on the trail in a different capacity in my work as a journalist. So I’m working with Anchorage Daily News. That’s been really wonderful working with that team and just getting to be on the trail and find the stories that are so moving to me and then share them with a wider audience.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was… It’s funny because I think about it would certainly be running the Iditarod because that was one of the most memorable parts of my life, but it felt so big. It felt like a lifetime out there. And so how do you pin it down to a memory or two? But the first thing that comes to mind is after this challenge that felt so impossible at times and so beautiful and life-changing, and I just was never, ever confident that I would make it to Nome. And fighting my way up that mountain and seeing the lights of Nome and my dogs saw the lights of Nome, and just realizing that we’re really going to finish this thing. That was probably one of the strongest highs of my life just seeing those lights come through the shadows.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life? Oh, my gosh! I know that I love my family, and I love nature, and I love dogs. That’s something I know for sure. So anything that brings those together is where I want to be.