MANSFIELD — Mansfield native Matthew Failor began his live interview with a warning Thursday night.
“I’m not a public speaker, I just scoop dog poop for a living,” joked Failor, an Alaskan sled dog racer.
The 2000 Mansfield St. Peter’s graduate sat down with Richland Source City Editor Carl Hunnell for “An evening with Matthew Failor,” a live conversation about his life and work in Alaska.
The sold-out event generated $1,030 in proceeds for the Humane Society of Richland County.
Failor is a St. Peter’s High School graduate and 13-time competitor in the Iditarod, a race that spans nearly 1,000 miles of Alaskan wilderness.
He and his wife, Liz, are the owners of Alaskan Husky Adventures, a year-round tour operation that offers guests the chance to experience sled dog rides and training sessions.
From Mansfielder to musher
Failor, a graduate of The Ohio State University, first heard about the chance to work with sled dogs from a childhood friend during a summer break from college.
“We hung out one weekend and he said, ‘I had the best summer job ever. I got to work with sled dogs in Alaska,’” Failor recalled.
“He knew that I love dogs and the outdoors because of our upbringing and so he encouraged me to apply. I got a job as a dog handler, which would be like an entry level position, back in 2006.”
After graduating with a fine arts degree in photography, Failor moved to Alaska full-time and began training as a musher under Iditarod racer Matt Hayashida.
For a while, Failor envisioned bringing his love of sled dogs and racing back to Ohio to set up a touring teaching program for schools.
“I didn’t really have any inclination to stay in Alaska long-term. I didn’t have any inclination to run the Iditarod because I knew how expensive the sport was. I just figured I would work a few summers and winters and then move back.”
Failor credits his mentor and four-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser with inspiring him to race.
“He said maybe someday you can run this race and back and that then made me start thinking long term about it,” he said.
In the thick of the race
Failor’s racing career began in 2010. He competed in his first Iditarod in 2012.
Dubbed “The Last Great Race,” the event pays homage to Alaska’s mining and mushing history with a near-1,000 mile trail stretching from Anchorage to Nome.
Racers are required to take a 24 hour rest during some point in the 10-day race, but the intermittent breaks between are much shorter and less restful for mushers.
Every break starts with feeding the dogs, removing their booties and sometimes thawing their water.
“In some of the villages, they’ll cut a hole in the ice in the river and they’ll pull water out,” Failor said.
“If they have water that’s great because otherwise, I need to start my cooker and get a fire going and melt the snow so that takes probably 15 minutes.”
After attending to the dogs, mushers have to check and repair any broken parts on their sleds.
“In a four-hour break, you’re probably going to get two hours sleep if you’re pretty quick and if you have water available,” he said.
“It comes to about a six-hour run and a four-hour break. You get one or two hours of sleep every 10 hours. If you do not sleep, you just start to make mistakes. You have to try to take care of yourself.”
How a change in strategy helped Failor clinch a top ten finish
Failor hit a new peak in his Iditarod career last year, when he scored his first Top-10 finish. He said the key was adopting a new approach to resting the pack.
“You have 16 dogs. If you’re lucky enough, if you have a great enough team, maybe all 16 of them can do the task at the same rate, the same speed and sleep the same amount of time,” Failor said.
“But if you have a bunch of freshmen and a bunch of seniors, you have to tailor your traveling schedule to the weakest denominator and so that might be the slowest member.”
Failor said that in the past, he’d try to give his dogs extra time to rest so the slower ones could remain with the pack.
In 2023, he decided to “return” some of his slower dogs, removing the ones who couldn’t keep pace from the lineup and sending them home early.
“We got down to only six dogs, but we finished in eighth place,” he said.
Deciding where and how long to rest is one of the strategic factors that come into play for Iditarod athletes.
“It’s like the tortoise-and-the-hare debate,” Failor said.
“If you run slow, you spend less energy, so the dogs don’t need as much rest. If you run fast, you spend more energy and the dogs need more sleep to build the energy to keep going.”
Sportsman award
Failor finished his most recent Iditarod in 13th place after an unplanned pit stop.
Failor had intended to pass by fellow racer Hunter Keefe, but said he could tell something was wrong. He pulled over and found out one of Keefe’s dogs had died on the trail, so he stopped and stayed with him.
The altruistic decision likely cost him that Top 10 finish, but Failor said it was the right thing to do.
“He told me what happened and so I gave him a big hug and, you know, plans changed,” Failor said.
Three dogs died during the 2024 Iditarod, despite the thorough checks that occurred at the start of the race and at checkpoints throughout the journey.
Failor said he’s never had a dog die on the trail, but that sudden cardiac events can happen. He said Keefe’s dogs appeared healthy and strong at the onset of the race.
“It’s the worst thing anybody can imagine and it can happen to anybody at any time. It could happen to you walking your dog,” Failor said.
“All three of those guys are receiving death threats and hate emails from certain small groups and it’s just not fair.”
Keefe later nominated Failor for the Donlin Gold Sportsmanship Award. Fellow Iditarod finishers voted Failor the recipient for the second time in four years.
Failor’s focus shifting from Iditarod to family
Failor said he likely won’t compete in the Iditarod in 2025. He plans to compete in the Knik 200 and Kuskokwim 300, but have his handler take the dogs on the Last Great Race.
Instead, he’ll be spending more time with his wife, Liz, and 9-month-old son, Theo.
The couple met in 2018, when Liz was covering the race as an Emmy-award winning TV news reporter/anchor in Anchorage.
The pair married in July 2020 at their home in Willow, Alaska. They founded Alaskan Husky Adventures not long afterwards, as Liz’s TV station was shuttered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Failor said he and his wife consider their dogs more than their teammates — they’re family.
“The dogs have made me a better person,” Failor said.
“Anybody that owns a dog understands that they force you to make good decisions with your life. They make you get off the couch and get out of bed, go work out, go exercise, feed them on time and get outside. The dogs have helped me create a healthy lifestyle.”
