Any qualified musher is welcome to enter the Iditarod. A qualified musher is a person who is at least 18 years of age, is in good standing with the Iditarod Trail Committee, and has met one of the two following requirements: successfully finished a previous Iditarod or successfully finished two approved qualifying races totaling 500 miles or more in the 24 months prior to the start of the Iditarod the musher wishes to enter.

No. If you would like to sponsor me with about $30,000, I would love to run the Iditarod. It¼s every mushers dream to run the Iditarod. Click here to see a list of races entered by Suomi Hills Kennel.

mushers usually start the race. The most mushers ever to start the Iditarod was in the 2000 race when 82 mushers left the starting line. The most to ever finish was in '92 when 63 mushers successfully made it to Nome. No limit has been imposed on the number of entries, but talk has been made of limiting the number to 100 teams if needed at some point in the future.

Joe Redington, Sr. is the oldest musher to have finished the Iditarod. He finished the Iditarod in 1997 at the age of 80. Colonel Norman Vaughn started the Iditarod at the age of 88 but was not able to complete the race that year. Col. Vaughn technically holds the record as the oldest Iditarod musher, but Joe Redington, Sr is the oldest musher to ever finish the Iditarod.

Most mushers who compete in the Iditarod beginning training about 30 dogs in early fall. Many reasons exist for this: First, many mushers run more races than just the Iditarod, so some dogs will run the other races, some will run the Iditarod, and some may run in more than one race. Second, dog mushing is a sport, and like other professional sports, mushers want to have a pool of athletes to select the best team from.

The Junior Iditarod is a 160-mile race that runs from Wasilla to the Iditarod race checkpoint at Yentna, and then back to Wasilla. Mushers are required to take a 10-hour mandatory stop at Yentna. Mushers from the ages of 14-17 are eligible to participate. As in the "big" Iditarod, no assistance is allowed to the Junior Iditarod mushers. As an extra challenge, Junior Iditarod mushers are not allowed to enter any buildings along the trail or at Yentna while they are running the race.

The Iditarod is officially 1,049 miles long. However, this number was adopted because Alaska is the 49th state and the Iditarod is always over 1,000 miles long. The actual mileage is probably somewhere around 1,100, and does vary each from year to year based on whether the race runs on the northern course (even years) or southern course (odd years).

The maximum number of dogs to start the race with is 16. The minimum number mushers can start with is 12. The mushers usually finish with between 8 and 12. The remainder of the team is dropped off with the vets at the checkpoints along the way. The reasons for dropping the dogs vary from sore wrists and shoulders to a common cold.

The Iditarod Trail Committee promotes the Iditarod as a commemoration of the 1925 Anchorage to Nome diphtheria serum delivery. However, the race actually celebrates the memory of musher Leonhard Seppala. The Iditarod was patterned after the All-Alaskan Sweepstakes which were races held in the early 1900s. The Iditarod was not patterned after the serum delivery.

The Iditarod is a LONG distance sled race run in Alaska every year in March. Siberian Huskies compete in this race regularly. There are many people who believe that this endurance race is cruel. Nothing could be further from the truth! Please visit www.sunhusky.com/Facts/ for an indepth look at the controversy, as thoroughly investigated by June Price.

Iditarod is believed to come from an Athabaskan Indian word pronounced "Hi-dit-a-rod." There are many translations for this word, but the most widely accepted meaning is "a distant or far off place." The Iditarod River was the site of one of the last major gold strikes in Alaska in the early 20th century.

Dallas Seavey is the youngest musher to compete in and finish the Iditarod. Dallas ran the race in 2005, just one day after turning 18. Since race rules require a musher be 18 on the day of the race start, Dallas' record may hold for quite some time. Ellie Claus is the youngest woman to complete and Iditarod. Ellie ran the Iditarod in 2004, just over a week after turning 18.

The record currently stands just over 8 days 22 hours. The record was set in 2002 by Martin Buser or Big Lake, Alaska. The record longest time to finish the Iditarod is 32 days! Currently, the top 20 teams usually finish in under 11 days, and the last place team finishes in 14 or 15 days. The "middle of the pack" is somewhere in between.

The Iditarod Champion receives over 68,000 dollars in cash plus a brand new Dodge Ram 4x4 pickup (Alaska Dogde Dealers is a major race sponsor). A total of 600,000 dollars is distributed to the top 30 finishers in the race each year, and every musher who finishes the race is awarded $1,049. A few other smaller prizes are awarded along the trail to the first mushers into the checkpoints of McGrath and Unalakleet, as well as the first musher to the half-way point and the Yukon River.

No, many dog sled races are run every winter in Alaska, Canada, and the northern Lower 48 states. Races are also held in Europe, Russia, and even South America (during the austral winter). Additionally, four types of sled dog races exist. The Iditarod is in a category known as long-distance sled dog races, which are races that are 300 miles or longer and run in a continuous format where the clock doesn't stop at any point throughout the race.

No. After the team leaves the starting line in Wasilla, no help is allowed from outside people. The only exception is that mushers are allowed one helper for the first ten miles out of the starting line when the team is fresh and excited. This helper rides with the team to Knik, the first checkpoint. No crew is waiting at any of the checkpoints to help the mushers.

The most commonly used dog in the Iditarod (and in all of mushing) is the Alaskan Husky. The Alaskan Husky is actually a mixed breed, or mutt, dog that is born and bred to love to pull. Alaskan Huskies are a descendent of the original northern sled dogs (mostly domesticated wolves and wild dogs) used by the native peoples of the North Country. Beginning 150 years ago, white settlers, gold miners, and fur trappers moved into thee northland and brought their own dogs with them.

Joe Redington Sr. is considered the Father of the Iditarod. Dorthy Page is considered the Mother of the Iditarod. Both Joe and Dorthy worked very hard with a number of other people to get the first Iditarod race started in 1973 and keep the race going during the following years..

Most mushers attempt to log around 1,400 training miles between Sept. and Feb. In addition to this they run several two and three hundred mile races. The yearly mileage grand total for a competitive sled dog is over 3,200 miles counting the Iditarod!

In almost all of the Iditarod races, at least one dog death has occurred. The first race is reported to have resulted in the deaths of 15 to 19 dogs. In 1997, the Anchorage Daily News reported that "at least 107 (dogs) have died." In the years since that report, 23 more dogs have died in the Iditarod, bringing the grand total of dogs who have died in the Iditarod to at least 130.

The Iditarod Dog Sled Race has led to an increase in the number of husky dog kennels in Alaska. In these kennels, many dogs are treated cruelly. Many kennels have more than 100 dogs. Some have as many as 200 dogs. None of the kennels is inspected or supervised by the State of Alaska. Mushers raise many dogs hoping that a few will be strong enough to run in the race.

For six thousand years, sled dogs have served as the principal form of transportation for the native peoples of the north. As white settlers, gold miners, and fur trappers moved into what is today Alaska and the northern territories of Canada, they, too, used the dog team for winter transportation. When gold camps boomed in the interior, the call for mail and supply delivery in the winter months was answered by the hearty dogs and mushers.

We simply do not know how many dogs die or are injured during their intensive and grueling training for the race. Most mushers train their dogs in the remote areas of rural Alaska; consequently, their activities cannot be monitored. As part of their training, many mushers force their dogs to pull very heavy loads, which can cause hip and spine injuries.

Many thousands of dollars in prizes are awarded to the winning mushers. The largest prize is given to the musher whose team crosses the finish line first. However, prize money is also given to teams who first reach certain points along the trail. Mushers who are hired to be in corporate advertisements receive substantial financial benefits, as do mushers who reap royalties from the sales of books they write or the speeches they give.

Mostly I feel a sense of pride in what my dog athletes can do. No other animal on the planet can sustain and master what racing sled dogs do. I am always in awe of their ability both mentally and physically.

an emergency substitute for a packet, you can drink an 8 ounce glass of skim or low-fat milk for each supplement you will miss. Don't do this for more than one day. If you will be away from your Medifast supplies for longer than one day, focus on eating meals that are high-protein, low carbohydrates until you can return to your program. During the first week or so on the program, some people experience diarrhea from the body's adjustment to the concentration of nutrients in the supplements.

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