#iditarod 2024

[akdogdriver]

More Dallas & his leaders in Nome

[tonichelleak]

Dallas Seavey at the Ceremonial Start and ReStart of Iditarod 52. Dallas. Seavey. The kid that believed he was on a trajectory for an Olympic career and not a dog mushing one. Oh, sure, he was like many others of his generation who not only grew up in the presence of many great mushers - all the while helping his dad build a successful racing kennel - but one who watched Iron Will and tried to recreate many of the scenes from the movie... but as he often told tourists - he had no desire to make it his life like his dad had.

Then injuries sidelined his Olympic wrestling dream (was on his way to making the 2008 USA team) so he came home and continued helping his dad build monster teams.

After a while running the puppy team just wasn't enough. Puppy teams are competitive and if you know Dallas even a little bit you know the dude is extremely competitive.

He studied like he was working on a Masters Degree. No one knows the science and stats of the race more than Dallas. Guarantee it.

He won his first title in 2012, then again in 2014, 2015, 2016... took a break after his second place finish in 2017 (we won't rehash the whys) and came back in 2021 to win it again (granted the shorter "Gold Loop Trail" - thanks Covid - but he battled the Rainy Pass Pony Mafia so it still is a huge accomplishment). His '21 race meant he tied for most wins, sharing that record with the legendary Rick Swenson. Swenson was one of Dallas's childhood heroes... and Dallas had broken or tied just about every record Rick had.

This year, Dallas won number six. He is the winningest Iditarod Champion.

It wasn't easy. In November he and two of his handlers took teams out on a training run. His handler running many of Dallas's top dogs was hit by a snow machine. Dogs were killed, some injured with career ending, life altering injuries. The mushers were physically all fine, but mentally... mentally it took a while to feel "normal" on the runners.

Dallas borrowed dogs from his dad to make a competitive Iditarod team, it wasn't ideal - but he'd done it before. The Ceremonial Start and ReStart seemed to go on without an issue. Crowds cheered the musher on and he quickly slipped into the routine.

Monday of race week rolls around. Dallas' birthday. Early that morning an aggressive moose plowed into Dallas' team, the only thing for the musher to do was dispatch the moose. If you've followed the race you know what happened next. Dallas did not properly gut out the moose, one of his dogs was injured but it wasn't noticeable right away (dog is fine now), he was penelized for the improper dressing out of the moose. Dallas was not going to win.

Then things changed in the second half of the race. Teams who decided to try to outrun Dallas who was already dealing with time penalties pushed too hard, too long, too soon. Dallas caught up. And then Dallas did what Dallas does.

And now Dallas Seavey is the only six time champion in the history of the race.

That's a wild ride. (see what I did there? no, oh, well.... you can find out what I mean here.)

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[beansnpeets]

So Dallas Seavey.

This is his 6th Iditatod win. He's completed the race 13 times.

His team encountered a moose that became entangled with his team. He shot it and it landed on top of his sled. One of his wheel dogs was injured. He field dressed the moose and continued on, then camped for 3 hours a bit after. His dog ended up being more injured than she seemed and was flown to Anchorage for emergency surgery. She is okay and has been recovering at home.

The team right after Seavey reported that the dead moose was directly on the trail (which makes sense if it fell on his sled) and her and her team had to travel right over top of the moose.

It was decided that Seavey had not sufficiently field dressed the moose and he was given a 2 hour penalty that he had to take with his mandatory 24 hour rest, making it 26 hours.

Despite all of this, Seavey crossed the finish line in Nome at 5:16pm AKST yesterday with 10 dogs in harness.

[tonichelleak]

Swedish musher Mats Pettersson at the Ceremonial Start and ReStart of Iditarod 52. Pettersson is a veteran of Iditarod and is well liked by fans and mushers alike.

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[tonichelleak]

Veterinarian Jessica Klejka at the Ceremonial Start and ReStart of Iditarod 52. The veteran musher grew up in Bethel, Alaska and now spends her time practicing veterinary medicine in both Knik, AK and Bethel.

This year Klejka won Most Inspirational Musher voted on by her fellow Iditarod finishers after it was let slip that Jessica hadn't traveled the Iditarod alone with her dogs, she had a stowaway as she was close to 4 months pregnant while racing. Jessica would say at the awards banquet she does not recommend doing both. While not the first musher to run the race pregnant, she still managed to cause quite the stir in the mushing fandom with the news.

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[tonichelleak]

Iditarod 52 Rookie Bryce Mumford at the Ceremonial Start and the ReStart. Mumford unfortunately did not finish his Iditarod in Nome, having to scratch on the Coast. Mumford's team was low on leaders and with the winds and crazy cold temps his team wanted to go home, and like any good musher he listened. Hopefully we see them back at it soon, though the expense of the lifestyle could mean we don't see them for a few years if ever.

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[tonichelleak]

Travis Beals, bib 14, at the Ceremonial Start and ReStart of Iditarod 52. Travis ran a solid race and tried to take advantage of Dallas Seavey's time penalty to gain a huge lead, and he did have one for a good while on the Yukon River. Unfortunately he let the team loose a little too soon and their speed fizzled as they left the river and headed for the coast. He also had some trouble with dogs coming into heat. Beals had never been leading in a major race before and said after his race was over that he was proud of his team and he knows he made mistakes but he's putting those lessons into his tool box for next year.

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[tonichelleak]

Mille Porsild, bib 12, at the Ceremonial Start and ReStart of Iditarod 52. Mille ran much of the first half of her race battling pancreatitis, she was told during her stop in Takotna she would not be allowed to continue unless she could get a doctor's okay. She took her mandatory 24 in Takotna spending most of her time under medical care, but got the okay. She said she would take it one checkpoint at a time, but fans could tell she was on the mend when she started picking off teams to get back into a competitive position towards the last leg of the race. Mille managed a top ten finish even with the setbacks.

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