Ryan Anderson – At the age of 35, Ryan Anderson is living his childhood dream – Running Iditarod. He’s new to the Last Great Race™, but certainly not new to mushing. When Ryan set his sights on running dogs, the family acquired ten Alaskan Huskies and the rest is history.

He’s been around the sport of mushing since the tender age of five. He ran his first race while in grade school and began racing competitively at the age of ten. Anderson participated in the Jr. Iditarod when he was 17. By then he knew that mushing would be his profession.

His very first contact with the mushing community came when he met a couple of Alaskan mushers who had relocated near his home. When he first visited their kennels and saw the canine athletes, it was probably love at first sight. Soon he was helping around the kennel doing daily chores. That led to standing on the runners for short runs and then to racing small teams, which grew into bigger teams, and longer races and now to Iditarod.

In preparing for his dream of mushing across Alaska, he’s compiled a very impressive list of credentials. He’s won the Minnesota based John Beargrease sled dog marathon twice, actually make that three times with his 2017 victory. Anderson has claimed gold in Michigan’s UP 200 six times, which is more than any other UP 200 champion.  He’s also claimed gold in the Seely Lake 200, the White Oaks, the Can Am Crown and the Hudson Bay Quest. He’s won both the Beargrease Marathon and the UP 200 in the same year, not once but twice and he holds course records in the Hudson Bay Quest, Seely Lake 200, UP 200 and the Beargrease.

TLC Toys that will be given to village children along the trail.

Ryan’s special project for the 2017 Iditarod is Toys to Nome. As explained on Anderson’s web page, Ryan’s team and race officials will be transporting wooden toys made by TLC Toys to different checkpoints along the trail where they will be given to local children as a way of saying thank you for supporting the Iditarod and welcoming the race to their village.      

In the non-mushing season, Anderson works as a carpenter. He and his wife own and operate Ander Tier Racing Kennel that is the home to forty-five Alaska Huskies. He says he and the dogs are ready for Iditarod. They are looking forward to the challenge as well as the spectacular change of scenery.