The Iditarod Sled Dog Race

The Iditarod Trail is 1161 miles of Alaska at its best. The trail starts in Anchorage on the first Saturday in March as part of the famous Fur Rondy festival. The Fourth Avenue start is considered the first check point, and is primarily ceremonial. The first sled out of the shoot is driven by an honorary musher, someone who has contributed to sled dog racing in some way. The actual racers then follow at two minute intervals. The order is determined during a banquet held two days earlier. The mushers choose their starting position based on their time of registration; the first to register gets first pick of the starting positions. Only one team per position is allowed.

Although the above information is accurate, it doesn’t begin to communicate the excitement, the fun and the competitive spirit that drives the mushers and their dogs to travel through rough terrain and rougher weather in an effort to be the first to cross the finish line in Nome. After a slow start in 1969, the race achieved solid financial footing and has run every year since 1973 in commemoration of the 1925 serum run to Nome.

The Iditarod is full of Alaska firsts: The first woman to complete the race was Mary Sheilds in 1974, and the first woman to win the race was Libby Riddles in 1985; she was followed by Susan Butcher in 1986 (Butcher went on to the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years); and it was designated as one of the first four National Historic Trails in 1978. The first musher to win four races was Rick Swenson, in 1982. In 1991 he became the only person to win five times, and the only musher to win the race in three different decades. Susan Butcher, Doug Swingley, Martin Buser and Jeff King are the only other four-time winners. Martin Buser set the fastest time in 2002 with a time of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, and 2 seconds.

There is so much that is amazing and fascinating about the Iditarod Trail that books have been written on it. Many of the dogs have become as famous as their owners, and almost as easily recognized. Truly, the Iditarod is the Last Great Race on Earth.

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