7th March: Iditarod Sled Dog Race

The Iditarod Rail Sled Dog race begins on the first Saturday in March. It runs from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. 10 fact about the Iditarod:

1. The race was first held in 1973 as a test for the best sled dog mushers. The winner of the first race was Dick Wilmarth, in in 20 days, 0 hours, 49 minutes, and 41 seconds.
2. The race has two starts - a ceremonial one in Anchorage, and an official restart at Willow, 80 miles north of there. At the ceremonial start, the first musher to leave will be someone chosen for their contribution to dog sledding. Thereafter a team leaves every two minutes, the order having been determined by a draw.
3. There are two different routes, run on alternate years. In even numbered years, they use the northern route and in odd numbered years, like 2015, they use the southern route. The second route was added to spread the burden on the towns and villages the race passes through.
4. There is a prize for the team that comes last as well as for the winner. The last team to cross the line are awarded a "red lantern" for endurance. This comes from an old tradition that a kerosene lamp was hung outside a roadhouse whenever a musher was on route with supplies or mail.
5. The fastest winning time record at time of writing was set in 2014 by Dallas Seavey with a time of 8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, and 19 seconds. He was also the youngest ever winner in 2012 when he was 25. The oldest was Mitch Seavey, who won it in 2013 at the age of 53. And yes, they are related - father and son. Mitch's father Dan also competed in the race several times including the first two races.
6. The closest race in Iditarod history was in 1978 when the winner and the runner-up were only one second apart. There was some controversy around this, because although the winner's lead dog crossed the line a nose ahead of the runner up's, the runner up was the first of the two humans across.
7. Mary Shields was the first woman to complete the race, in 1974 (Finishing 23rd). Libby Riddles was the first woman to win in 1985. Since then, Susan Butcher has become one of only six people to have won four times.
8. There is one five times winner - Rick Swenson, who won his fifth race in 1991. He is also the only musher to win in three different decades.
9. The race is condemned by animal rights groups as animal abuse, although the dogs are monitored and looked-after throughout the race. They are checked by vets at the beginning and also at several of the check-points during the race. If any dog has to drop out of the race through injury or exhaustion, it is flown by the volunteer Iditarod Air Force to the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center at Eagle River, where the prisoners will look after it until its owners are able to pick it up. Any musher who neglects or abuses their dogs will be banned from competing.
10. The dogs will burn 5,000 calories a day, and in terms of their body weight, this amounts to three and a half times the caloric burn of a human competing in the Tour de France.