HUMAN
Name: Kevin Sorbo
Age: 63
Residence: Wellington, FL
Occupation: Actor, producer, director, and author
Years involved with Iditarod: 1
Iditarod Role: Celebrity Starter
Current Location: Ceremonial Race Start, 4th Ave, Downtown Anchorage, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 5, 2022
Temperature: 32 F Outdoors Dumping Snow
What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?
So I first became involved with Iditarod when my friend, Deb Glenn, from Wisconsin, got in touch with me and said, “Hey, I’m going to try to set up for you to be one of the celebrity starters of the Iditarod the day before the actual race. Would you be interested?” And I said, “Are you kidding? It’s always been a bucket list thing for me.” So for me to be part of this is unbelievable. I’ve been here before. I came in the summertime. ESPN brought me up in the summer to fish for salmon on Kodiak Island. We stayed at the Larson Bay Lodge, and that was phenomenal. But I grew up Minnesota. So I grew up in the snow as well. So it’s always fun to come back to it. And we’re having a good snowstorm right now. No wind. Stay away wind. But this is amazing. And Deb set this whole thing up for me. So I’m blessed to be here.
What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?
Well, I do the Iditarod because I’ve always wanted to do this. It’s always been a wish of mine to be part of this. When I told my friends back home I was going to come up here and do this. Everybody was jealous. Everybody was like, “Oh, I want to go too!” And we did a little practice run yesterday. It was my first time ever on a dog sled. And it was pretty cool. That the feeling was pretty… I’m a skier, so there was a sort of similar feel to it. Luckily I’ve got a driver who knows what he’s doing in front of me. I’m about 20 feet behind him. So we’ve got two sleds going. I know all have 12 dogs. We just only did it with eight dogs yesterday. But this is going to be a once in a lifetime experience. And I’m so happy to be here. And I’m really looking forward to the start.
Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences.
One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was yesterday. We did a practice run with the dogs, and I was a little bit nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. And the people that were there were basically pulling an April Fools’ gag on me, because they were scaring the heck out of me and telling me what was going to happen. But it wasn’t… I think they did it for me to get more nervous about it than I wanted to be, than I already was. And it helped me to find out, “Okay, this isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.” It’s good, and it’s a different experience. But to me so far, that was it. But I’ll tell you about five hours from now, I think I’ll have a better answer to that question.
What do you know for sure?
What I know for sure in life is that you shouldn’t let anyone set your limitations. Too many people give up too quickly in life. If they fail once, they give up. And failure needs to be learned to be a positive thing, instead of a negative thing, because we’re all going to fail in life. We’re all going to hit road blocks in life. So for me, I always tell people, I said, “Always stick to your guns. Stick to your dreams.” As corny as that might sound, you have to keep plugging in life because God never promises an easy life to live in. And we got to do the best we can with friends and family and loved ones. That’s more important than anything else.