Iditarod Musher Profile

Colleen Robertia, 33, was born and in Pennsylvania and raised in Massachusetts. She received her B.S. degree in 1998 in New York, with a major in Environmental Biology and a minor in African Studies. She then worked as a zookeeper caring for threatened and endangered species of large hoof stock (elephants, rhinos, giraffe, antelope) and big cats (lions, leopards, jaguars and cheetahs) in Georgia for the Wildlife conservation Society and then for the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. She says, "We quite our jobs at the zoo to thru-hike the 2,168 mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. It was a period of deep introspection. We figured out what was important to us in life and moved to Alaska looking for a life closer to nature, with potential for adventured and with more genuine people." Since coming to Alaska, she has worked as a youth counselor. She began mushing in the fall of 2003 and says, "Having worked several years for a former Iditarod champion, Iditarod has always been the ‘BIG FINISH' of the season. As a handler I would train dogs all season only to see them get leased to others for the Race. Now with my own kennel, running thousands of miles with my own dogs, Iditarod is OUR end goal." A Yukon Quest finisher, she has won some mid-distance races in Alaska and has received the Humanitarian Award several times for her devotion to her dogs. Colleen says, "My dogs are my family and best friends. For me the appeal of the Iditarod is to travel with them as one unit, working together, to travel across Alaska as competitively and humanely as possible. As with all races I compete in, my team will be made up of several rogues, to include many runt, rescues and rejects from animal shelters and other mushers. I have worked hard to overcome many of the physiological/behavioral issues of the dogs in my kennel, and I take pride in all the work my husband and I have put into them - without the aid of handlers or helpers and while both are maintaining full time jobs. I don't define my success by how well I do against other mushers. Rather I define it by how well I do with my own dogs and how well my message reaches race supporters and spectators. My message is simply yet comes from the fiber of my being which is: you can have a competitive team and live by a humane philosophy. Perhaps I'm not considered to have the best of the best in terms of canine athletes, but I try to do my best with the dogs I have, and they do their best with me." When asked about hobbies and interests other than dogs and mushing, she says, "Pulling pranks on my husband and neighbors, spending money on my dogs that I don't have (or ever will), and getting my niece and nephew to believe outrageous stories (like I caught a leprechaun in my house so he gave me his pot of gold, when really it was gold I won in a race) and then having them repeat the stories to their parents who call me mad. I also enjoy backpacking, camping, hiking and playing sports. She is married to Joseph.