HUMAN

Name: Jodi Bailey

Age: 53

Residence: Dew Claw Kennel in Chatanika, Alaska

Occupation: Dog musher

Years involved with the Iditarod: My husband first ran Iditarod in 2010 and I ran it in 2011 and we have been racing with the Yukon Quest and other distance races in Alaska prior to that.

Iditarod Role: This year, my Iditarod role is supporting Dan, who is the Dew Claw Kennel musher running this year.

Current Location: Nome, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 15, 2022

Temperature: 30F Outdoors & 68F Indoors at Iditarod Headquarters

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

I first became involved with the Iditarod actually as Dan’s Yukon Quest handler, and when you’re in distance mushing you get asked a lot, oh, have you ran the Iditarod? Oh, have you… And Dan decided it was about time for him to do it, and it got to the point where I was feeling a lot more confident in my own mushing and was ready to stop watching him have all the fun. And shortly… I had begun distance racing prior to 2011, but in 2011, I ran my rookie Iditarod.

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

So, today I am actually here nervously, nervously, nervously setting up a space in the Nome dog lot for our team that’s coming in today. My husband along with Jesse Holmes and Richie Diehl and a few others are all coming in this evening and it’s a very, very tight race. So I’m here today involved with the Iditarod because I can’t sit at home and refresh the tracker anymore, I have to do something.

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

One of my most memorable experiences in the Iditarod was finishing my rookie year and, I, in 2011 became the first person ever to run on the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod back to back as a rookie. It hadn’t been done and I think if I’m being honest, even 50% of the people who knew me didn’t think I’d do it, just because it was a fairly major undertaking and I was wrapping up the last 20 miles of a 2000 mile journey that was both physical and really representative of some growth and some self accomplishments for myself and I got up on Cape Nome and just was kind of crying uncontrollably at the thought of it being over. And it was just a really… I don’t even know what adjective to give it, but there are some things in life that can’t be bought, they have to be earned. And I sometimes liken it to… For instance, something I haven’t done, childbirth. Where you can dream about it, you can read, you can prep, you can take classes, you can watch all the videos in the world, but at some point in time you have to go through it. And then only you understand it in the special way that it’s transformed your life.

What in life do you know for sure?

What I know for sure in life, and I say this with the experience of an older person, is that you never know. And that sounds fatalistic, but really, it also means you never know. The world is full of endless possibilities. I didn’t get serious about racing until I was in my 40s. And if anybody who is young is listening out there, remember, you never know, so never give up.