HUMAN

Name: Rich Bender

Age: 54

Residence: San Diego, California

Occupation:  I’m retired

Years involved with Iditarod: This is my 6th year

Iditarod role: I’ve done comms and trail duties, as well as trail guard

Current Location: Kaltag, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 15, 2020
Temperature: 30F/Outdoors

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

I got involved in the Iditarod about 10 years ago when my wife and I visited Alaska, and we took a snowmobile tour to the first checkpoint. When we arrived, we saw the straw on the ground. They had just left a few weeks earlier. And my wife was very inquisitive as to what the straw was out on the river. We were told about the Iditarod. We’d heard about the Iditarod, but really didn’t know or follow it. When we returned home, she did a lot of research and we both just fell in love with the passion that goes into the sport; the mushers, the dogs, the volunteers. It just became part of our life. So it took a few years to get the courage to come up and volunteer. So we did, and we did four years in Anchorage just doing different duties that we could do in that environment. And then last year we went out onto the trail at Unalakleet. Nine days up there. And it was chaos 24-7. And we couldn’t wait to get back. So here we are.

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

So I’m here today and involved with the Iditarod because we love the dogs. We love coming out and seeing these villages because we don’t relate to this. We live in the big city. We drive cars down the freeway at 80 miles an hour. We come out here, and we see the kids on snowmobiles and the villagers just living a simplistic yet complicated life. I can’t imagine not coming back. I mean, we’re mesmerized by these people. The mushers, I mean, it’s ungodly what they do. I just couldn’t imagine going through what they go through. When they come into these villages and they’re welcomed with open arms, and the villagers do what they can to make the mushers comfortable and help us out, and we try to help them out. It’s just become part of our routine. It’s the hardest working vacation I’ve ever taken.

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

So my most memorable experience on the Iditarod was last year in Unalakleet, my wife and I were working comms. It was 3:00 AM in the morning, and Martin Buser and Lance Mackey were getting up, getting their things together and about to get ready to leave. When Lance Mackey stood up, his nose just started gushing blood, and immediately Martin grabbed a washcloth and just took control. Pushed him back onto the couch and was holding the cloth over his nose and there was blood going everywhere. One of the other mushers in the room spouted it out, “Better be careful. Hope he doesn’t have AIDS.” Martin turned around without skipping a beat and said, “He’s got a lot of things, but he ain’t got AIDS,” and never stopped his first aid care. It was a really cool moment to see the comradery amongst those mushers. Those were both accomplished guys. They do this. I don’t think they do it to win. I think they do it because they love the Iditarod. They love the sport. I don’t know what they think their chances are. Obviously everyone thinks they can win. But you could tell those guys were there because they just loved this environment, and that was very cool.

 

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is the sun’s going to come up, the moon’s going to come up, the weather is going to change, people are going to change, times are going to change, and you just have to persevere. You’ve got to be positive. You’ve got to always believe that you can, and you can’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t. Just, you have to mush on.