Biography on aliy zirkle

Aliy Zirkle, 50, was.
Aliy Zirkle (born 1970 in New Hampshire) is an American champion of sled dog racing.
Aliy Zirkle is an American champion of sled dog racing.

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Musher Details

Aliy Zirkle, 50, was born in New Hampshire and was raised in New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, St. Louis and Pennsylvania. She graduated with a degree in biology from the University of Pennsylvania. When she was in her early 20’s, she moved to a small Alaskan town north of the Arctic Circle. During her first winter, she adopted six huskies, built a dog sled and explored the surrounding wilderness with her dog team. The challenges of this first winter taught her many of the skills that she uses today. This solitary, independent, wilderness lifestyle that Aliy fell in love 26 years ago has now ironically, thrown her into the media spotlight. While she has had many successes in her dog mushing career, she has also had notable disappointments. Aliy finished 2nd place in the Iditarod three times in a row. She is the first, and only, woman to win the Yukon Quest (a 1,000 mile remote mushing adventure race.) Aliy and her husband, Allen Moore, an Iditarod veteran and Yukon Quest winner, own and operate SP Kennel – a premier sled dog kennel in Two Rivers, Alaska. They striv

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For years – long before I had the chance to interview her – I’d hoped that Aliy Zirkle and her team would win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. She always struck me as a strong-willed, big-hearted woman who was passionate about dogs and the Alaska wilderness.

Zirkle lives in Two Rivers, Alaska, where sled dogs outnumber human beings four to one. She’s done either the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race (1,000 miles) or the Iditarod (1,049 miles) every year since 1998. She’s never had to scratch, and won the Yukon Quest in 2000. Since then Zirkle, now 50, has focused on the Iditarod, and has come in second place three years in a row.

And after I got the chance to chat for a freelance piece*, I liked her even more. That’s because Zirkle is…frugal!

She and her husband, Allen Moore, are both savers, not spenders. Their bed is 20 years old and the couch is 12 years old. They don’t have high-tech electronics. If they earn less than expected in a given year, they put off nonessential purchases or upgrades rather than take on debt.

It’s all about their mushing buddies, whose

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Aliy Zirkle

American champion of sled dog racing (born 1970)

Aliy Zirkle (born 1970 in New Hampshire) is an American champion of sled dog racing.^[1]

Aliy Zirkle moved to Bettles, Alaska at age twenty and began mushing due to the remote nature of the town. She adopted six sled dogs and began learning how to race and train dogs. Aliy raced her first Yukon Quest in 1998 and her first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 2001. In 2000, she became the first woman to win the Yukon Quest, finishing the race with a time of 10 days, 22 hours and 57 minutes.^[2] Aliy has been the runner-up in the Iditarod three consecutive years, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Her best time in the Iditarod came in 2014, when she finished the race with a time of 8 days, 13 hours, 6 minutes and 41 seconds.^[3] Aliy has finished the Iditarod 14 times and the Yukon Quest 3 times. She has completed either the Yukon Quest or the Iditarod every year since 1998. Aliy also regularly competes in shorter dog sled races, such as the Two Rivers 100, the Copper Basin 300, and the Yukon Quest 300.