Each dog sled team is given a GPS device that tracks them—it is not used for navigation—and also serves as a distress beacon should they need to call for help, automatically disqualifying them from the race. Each musher starts the race with a team of 16 dogs and must cross the finish line with at least 6 harnessed. Dogs will get dropped at checkpoints as the animals lose their endurance or suffer an injury. The Iditarod Air Force—Alaskan bush pilots who run supplies for the race—pick up the dropped dogs so they can be transported back to Anchorage.
Alaskan Huskies, the primary type of dog used in dog-sled racing, are a mongrel breed that have highly varied appearances. Siberian Huskies and Canadian Inuit Dogs, originally used for mushing, were bred with a number of different dogs like German Shepherds and German Shorthair Pointers to give them high strength and endurance, making them the best sled dogs in the world. A red lantern hangs from the finish line in Nome to represent the lanterns that guided mushers to outposts and cabins along the trail in the first half of the 20th century when dog sleds were used for mail and supply deliveries.
The last musher to cross the finish line receives the Red Lantern Award, similar to the Lanterne Rouge awarded to last place in the Tour de France. The Iditarod speed record was set in by Dallas Seavey—8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, and 19 seconds the young musher also won in and , and is going for his fourth win this year.
March 18, - Thomas Waerner wins his first Iditarod. The race ranges from to miles long, depending on whether the southern or northern route is being run. The length can also vary from year to year based on course conditions. Read More. The race traditionally begins on the first Saturday in March, starting in Anchorage and ending in Nome.
The beginning of the race in Anchorage is considered a ceremonial start. The competitive part of the race usually begins the next day in Willow, but depends on weather conditions. There may be only one musher person who drives the sled per team.
There are dogs on each team. The most popular breed of dog is the Alaskan Husky, according to National Geographic. The animals get tested for strength and endurance before being selected. There are about 25 checkpoints at which each participant must stop. The course was laid out along a telephone line so that bulletins from the race could be transmitted back to Nome and posted in public places.
The Iditarod Sled Dog Race carries on the racing tradition started in those early days. It commemorates those intrepid mushers including Seppala and their dogs, who fought through blizzard conditions to bring a life-saving diphtheria serum to Nome in And it also captures the spirit of a long-ago mushing lifestyle, which began to fade away as airplanes and snowmachines made travel between villages and larger towns faster and more convenient.
Joe Redington Sr. In , Mitch Seavey broke all previous records by finishing in 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds, which currently stands as the fastest winning time for the Iditarod. Carl Huntington won the race with the slowest winning time, 20 days, 15 hours, two minutes and seven seconds. The teams average 16 dogs, which means over 1, dogs leave Anchorage for Nome. There are 23 checkpoints on the northern route, the first in Anchorage and the last in Nome.
On the southern route, there are 24 checkpoints. The closest finish was in Dick Mackey finished one second ahead of Rick Swenson.
The winner was decided by the nose of the lead dog across the finish line. The largest number of mushers to finish a single race was 78 in A red lantern is awarded to the last musher to finish Iditarod. The longest time for a Red Lantern was 32 days, 15 hours, nine minutes and one second by John Schultz in The quickest Red Lantern musher is Cindy Abbott. In , she finished in 12 days, 2 hours, 57 minutes and 31 seconds, a faster red lantern time than the first 19 winning times.
He is now the only person to win the Iditarod in three different decades, a record that will probably never be broken. Four time winner, Susan Butcher, claimed Iditarod victories in , , and again in Susan retired from long distance racing after the race in order to start a family with husband Dave Monson, himself a Yukon Quest champion.
Their first daughter, Margarith, was born in the spring of Four time winner Doug Swingley claimed victories in , , , and Four time winner Martin Buser claimed victories in , , , and Four time winner Lance Mackey is the only musher to have four straight wins, in , , and He also won the Yukon Quest in and , so is the only musher to have back to back wins in the Quest and iditarod.
Four time winner, Dallas Seavey, won the Iditarod is , , and
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