HUMAN

Name: Kristin Knight Pace
Age: 42
Residence: Palmer, Alaska
Occupation: Outdoor recreation planner for the National Park Service

First Year Ran Iditarod: 2016

Years involved with Iditarod: 3 years 

Iditarod Role: Musher, dog drop volunteer & handler
Current Location: Palmer, Alaska

Date of Photo: December 29, 2025
Temperature: 59F inside

What is/was your first and continuing motivation to run sled dogs?

What I love about running sled dogs is the silence and traveling far distances without having to talk to anyone.

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

I got involved with Iditarod as a dropped dog volunteer in 2011 when I was a musher for the National Park Service in Denali National Park. And I saw Martin Buser take off from Nikolai and go around a bend in the river and I thought, “I’d really love to do that someday.” Fast-forward a couple of years and I was a handler for Jeff King training his Iditarod team and I thought, “I need to start my own kennel.” So I bought three puppies from Jeff King and started my own kennel.

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

 

My most memorable experience running the Iditarod is in the Burn, like I’m sure many others have experienced. I was in a very low snow year, 2016. We were just on bare dirt and my dogs got very excited about something on the trail. I tried to stop them and slow them down to give them a snack to say, “What are we doing? Let’s walk this section please.” But before I know it, we were at a full speed gallop in a cloud of dust chasing a wood bison who then stopped in the trail and squared up to us. And my team just ran right smack into his butt.
He was really angry. He was kicking his hooves and I thought this is the end. But my lead dog Solo, who thankfully 80 feet out there in front of me could read my mind, steered us clear of the bison who took off into the woods and we somehow managed to get out of there unscathed.

What in life do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is there’s always another chapter.