HUMAN

Name: John Thain
Age: 34

Residence: Anchorage, Alaska 

Occupation:  I’m a photojournalist for KTVA 11 News

Years involved with Iditarod: 9

Iditarod role: Photojournalist

Current Location: Ruby, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 13, 2020
Temperature: 20F/Outdoors

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

I got involved with Iditarod shortly after moving to Alaska. I was a photojournalist and moved here from the Midwest and was just kind of immediately struck by dog sledding as just one of those things that you want to see in Alaska. And I’d covered a little bit in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but this was taking it to the next level. And so I did everything I could to cover dogs when I first came here. I worked weekends on my own time and drove long distances out to cover some of the smaller races and get to know the mushers. And then, when the time came a couple of years later to actually go on the trail, I was poised and ready to you go.

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

I’m here today and involved with Iditarod because after about eight years of covering it, it was the logical thing to do. I can’t get away from it. It would feel very strange to sit back and watch it from a distance in Anchorage. I just had to be a part of it. When the time came, there was no question like, yeah, I’m going, I got to do this again.

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

My most memorable Iditarod experience was definitely my first year on the trail, covering the whole trail the whole way. And that would have been in 2013. And that was a year when there was no snow in the Dalzell Gorge. The dog teams were just flying down a mountain with no snow and no brakes. And it was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. And we actually got to land our helicopter in the Dalzell Gorge. And I’d never been anywhere like that before. And we saw this happening. And in the midst of it all, I had a bag with some peanut butter and jelly and tortillas, and Dave Goldman, my reporter, and I just kind of made up some peanut butter and jelly tortillas and sat there in the middle of, at the time, we barely knew where we were. And we enjoyed those tortillas together. So I guess it’s not always about the dogs, it’s about the people and the experiences you share it with.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is that Iditarod isn’t everything. And that came to me for sure in 2015, the year my daughter was supposed to be born. And she was going to be born in March. And of course I really wanted to go on the Iditarod. And we were looking at the timing and the risks and the situations, and I just kind of had to take a step back from my excitement in covering the race and realize that my daughter’s only going to be born once. There’s going to be lots of Iditarods and then that became — that year was just kind of about being home and being with my daughter and watching her being born. And we named her Ruby, which is kind of funny because that’s where we’re standing right now.