HUMAN

Name: Dallas Seavey

Residence: Talkeetna, Alaska

Occupation: Professional Dog Musher

Years involved with Iditarod: 30

Previous Iditarod Roles: Musher

Current Location: Ceremonial Race Start, 4th Ave, Downtown Anchorage, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 5, 2022

Temperature: 30 F Outdoors Dumping Snow

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

I first became involved with the Iditarod as a child. My dad raced every year. And that’s just what the family did, is we trained and raced sled dogs and raced the Iditarod.

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

I’m here today and I’m involved with the Iditarod because I’m hoping to win it. This is my 13th Iditarod. We’ve won five, so we’re going for our sixth win. But wins aside, I’m here because I love traveling with sled dogs. That’s why I’m here. The racing gives both me and the dogs a sense of purpose with our traveling and a reason to be better at it and continue to improve. But the real joy is simply traveling with the dogs. 

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

I have so many memorable Iditarod experiences, it’s hard to pick one. But one of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was my first Iditarod win. There’s nothing that’s going to compare with that as far as success in the race, but I guess why it was memorable, is it wasn’t the “Hoorah, we did it,” that I thought it would be. I spent my entire childhood and young adulthood focusing on winning the Iditarod. And when it finally happened, it wasn’t like the sense of my accomplishment. It was a sense of overwhelming pride in my team. And I don’t know, just a simple joy, I guess. I really, really enjoyed that one, and it’ll stick with us forever.

What do you know for sure?

There’s very little I know for sure in life, to be perfectly honest. There has to be a level of definance, I’m sure that’s not even a word, but where you have things you believe to be true and definite. But there also must always be an element of retaining the possibility you may be wrong. So I definitely know this right now. And the reason I have the right now is because tomorrow I have to allow myself to definitely know something else contrary to what I definitely know right now. So it’s riding that fine line of balance between being and having convictions and having solid beliefs and having an identity, but also retaining the possibility that you may be wrong and allowing yourself to change your previous perceptions and become different. So if there’s anything I absolutely knew, it would be that everything has balance. So make sure that you’re trying to keep it in balance.