Mush!

It's hard to imagine the woman whose name is synonymous with the Iditarod was born amidst the cobblestoned streets of Cambridge. But then again, Susan Butcher always had a knack for surprising people.

During the 1980's and 90's, Butcher won the grueling 1,100+ mile Alaskan dogsled race four times. Not only that, she did it in record time. She was a fierce and gritty competitor, a perfect match for the formidable snow-covered course.

In 2008, then governor Sarah Palin declared the first Saturday in March "Susan Butcher Day," just a few months after Butcher had been elected to the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.  It was a posthumous award. Butcher had died a few years earlier of leukemia. 

She was a fighter on and off the sled, giving it everything she had right up to the very end.

"I do not know the word 'quit.' Either I never did, or I have abolished it." – Susan Butcher