HUMAN

Name: Larry Daugherty
Age: 44

Residence: Eagle River, Alaska

Occupation:  Radiation Oncologist

Years involved with Iditarod: Since 2014 

Iditarod role: Musher

Current Location: Ruby, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 13, 2020
Temperature: 30F/Outdoors

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

I got involved with the Iditarod, really in 2014 when I moved to Alaska. Met Jim Lanier at a book signing at Walgreens and invited myself over for a kennel tour. It had been a dream since I was a little kid to run the Iditarod. My grandma planted the seed when I was a nine-year-old kid when Libby Riddles won the Iditarod in 1985, and she became just totally fascinated with the Iditarod, used to send me newspaper clippings about the race. And I set the goal literally when I was 10-years-old. I told my wife twenty-something years ago on our first date, someday I was going to move to Alaska and race in the Iditarod and was fortunate to have the opportunity to come up here for a job in 2014 and got right to it, and Jim got me into it.

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

I’m here today and involved with the Iditarod, really just because I love Alaska. I love sled dogs. There’s just no more unique experience than out here mushing through this country; such a connection with the history of Alaska and personal connection with my grandma, honestly, and just because I love it. That’s why I’m here.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was my rookie year, 2016. I actually got to spread some of my grandma’s ashes, my grandma and my grandpa, at Rainy Pass. And, yeah, that’s definitely memorable. Every time I mush through there, I think of that experience.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is not very much. I think I used to have a lot of certainty in my life about things that have now changed and become less certain. I feel like the older that I get, the less certain I become. And I think when I’m out here, the one thing I know for certain is the importance of just being present in the moment. And right now we’ve got this COVID-19 thing going on, and we’re just taking it a mile at a time with the dogs. Hell was unleashed in the outside world. And it’s a blessing to be out here and to not have to think about it too much, to just be fully present, so… I think mushing has in part taught me that in all aspects of my life, whether it’s with my family or with my patients at work, just being present in the moment. That’s one thing you can be certain of, is to make value of that moment.