BELOW: ABOUT DALLAS SEAVEY and Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race  (After
reading this, be sure to use the link at the very bottom of this page
when Karen Duquette actually met Dallas Seavey.)
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod,
is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March.
It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12
and 16 dogs, of which at least 5 must be on the towline at the finish
line, cover the distance in 8 – 15 days or more. The Iditarod
began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams
but evolved into today's highly competitive race.
In 2017, Dallas Seavey placed 2nd, and his very
own father took 1st place. His family has raced in the Iditarod every
year, even in the very first race. Then Seavey took a three-year break
from the Iditarod.
Instead, in 2018 and 2019, Seavey competed in Europe's longest sled
dog race, Norway's Finnmarkslopet.
In 2021, Seavey returned to the Iditarod, racing with a combined
team of his father's dogs and his own, after Mitch Seavey announced
he would sit out the race. Seavey won the slightly shortened 2021
Iditarod in 7 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes, and 57 seconds, capturing
his fifth championship and matching Rick Swenson for most Iditarod
wins.
During the 2024 Iditarod, Seavey was given a two-hour time penalty
for not properly gutting a moose he killed during the race. The MOOSE
ATTACKED him and his dogs, one of which was severely injured. Seavey
used a handgun to shoot and kill the moose and spent about 10 minutes
at the kill site before advancing in the race. Officials said the
two-hour penalty would be added to Seavey's mandatory 24-hour layover.
At the time of the penalty being sanctioned, Seavey was leading the
race. Despite initially falling behind as a result of the penalty,
Seavey would go on to WIN his record-setting sixth Iditarod.
Seavey's grandfather, Dan Seavey, competed in the first two Iditarod
sled dog races in 1973 and 1974, as well as the 1997 and 2012 races.
His father, Mitch Seavey, has also competed in multiple Iditarod's,
winning in 2004, 2013 and 2017.
(above quotes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Seavey)
It is worth reading, but please return here. |
The 2016 Iditarod featured the most mushers to finish the race in
nearly a decade. 2016's 71 finishers is the most since a record 78
mushers finished the race in 2008. It is also only the fourth time
in race history that more than 70 mushers have finished the race (facts
may change as the years go by). There were also 71 finishers in 2006
and 77 in 2004.
In each of those four years, the race came on an even year, which
features that northern route. The northern route sends mushers from
Ophir north through Cripple, Ruby, Galena and Nulato before hitting
Kaltag.
In odd years, the race uses the southern route, which sends teams
from Ophir south to the Iditarod checkpoint, and through Shageluk,
Anvik, Grayling and Eagle Island before Kaltag. |
Karen Duquette met