HUMAN

Name: Joe Runyan
Age: 77
Residence: Cliff, New Mexico
Occupation: Retired Farmer

First Year Ran Iditarod: 1983

Years involved with Iditarod: 12 years 

Iditarod Role: Musher, board of directors, TV commentator, Blog writer for Cabela’s Iditarod

Current Location: Mesilla, New Mexico

Date of Photo: January 22, 2026
Temperature: 68F

What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?

What I love about running sled dogs is access to Alaska. My first experience with sled dogs was on the Yukon River, I was homesteading, and the sled dogs just gave you access to hundreds of miles of trails and really remote country. It was only till later that I became interested in the Iditarod. But the main reason I had sled dogs was just to explore Alaska.

Question 2: What, who or how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?

I got involved running the Iditarod because I was friends with George Attla who ran the first Iditarod, I think that was ’73. And then, as I was on the trap line, the radio chatter was always about the Iditarod starting in Anchorage, so from that point on, I was interested. And then, finally, in 1983, I decided to do it. I had a lot of buddies that had done it, Stan Zuray was one, but George Attla was always influential because he talked about it, how tough it was. So that was fun. And on the Yukon River, instead of talking about NBA basketball or NFL, you talked about the mushing scene. So it was always present in my mind, and that’s why I wanted to do it.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable experiences running the Iditarod:

My most memorable experience running the Iditarod, that’s an easy question. My first Iditarod, 1983, I’d never been to the coast of Alaska. And I left Koyuk for White Mountain, that whole stretch. And I remember just getting on a bluff, it was treeless, it was just small brush, it was true Arctic, we’re near the Arctic Circle, and looked out on the ocean, the ice, the sun setting in the west, and I really remember that, because I thought, man, I just want to keep on going, I don’t want it to end. 

What in life do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is, well, you recount the old experiences, the old friends, your family, that’s for sure. That’s a really tough existential one. And I have to say, having wilted from health issues several times and then bounced back to really experience what life is all about, I’d say those memories from Alaska, and then of course my extended family, that tops it. That’s what I think of.