Running with Champions

Lisa Frederic has been blessed living the Alaskan dream. After coming north for summer employment, she spent the next two decades fishing for wild salmon off the coast of Kodiak Island. She and her husband built a home in an isolated bay, eight hours by boat from the closest town. They make their own electricity and get mail once a week by seaplane. There are more bears than people in their neighborhood. A vacation in 1997 turned Lisäs life upside down when she visited Nome to see the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Five years later she was shocked to find herself committed to driving a dog team across the state. In 2002 she completed the 1,049-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as a rookie at forty-two years old. These days she writes and gives tours inside Denali National Park, trains sled dogs for Jeff King, and commutes to the ocean waters around Kodiak to fish commercially. Lisa is making plans for her next midlife Adventure.

An inspiring book about dedication, the love of dogs, and the physical endurance and mental toughness needed to run the Iditarod sled dog race -- from a female perspective.Lisa Frederic didn't set out to run the Iditarod. She just fell in love with the event and wanted to help. She ended up working as a volunteer for the Trail Committee at various checkpoints. Then she helped Iditarod champion Jeff King train his puppies. She had never mushed before. She was a rookie, but a rookie with heart and drive. She started out with short races and eventually raced the 1,049 miles from Anchorage to Nome in the Iditarod. Her story speaks to everyone who has ever followed a dream and found that the dream realized is even bigger than the imagined one.