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Written by Dogsled.com
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Wednesday, 11 October 2006 |
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Kwethluk, Alaska
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Ron Koczaja,
29, attended college at the State University of New York at Buffalo and
graduated with a degree in biology with a minor in education. He spent
summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he got into climbing and mountaineering.
After college, he decided to come to Alaska because of all the huge mountains.
Ironically, he ended up with a job in Kasigluk, a village located in the
middle of the huge flat Kuskokwim delta – no mountains or hills in sight.
He began running in 1995 with dogs that belonged to Cauline Ferguson and
“got hooked.” After a year, he got his own dogs and began running with
Yukon Quest musher, Andrew Lesh. After three years of mushing in the howling
wind and on glare ice and barren tundra, he moved to Kwethluk for the
trees, mountains and all around better trail conditions. He said he decided
to run the Iditarod after he entered the Kuskokwim 300 with the goal of
“just finishing” and ended up “placing fairly respectably and ahead of
some Iditarod mushers.” Ron is single. He says his hobbies are camping
and traveling.
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