Iditarod

In this episode, we have a race update as mushers start to take their mandatory 24-hour rests at different checkpoints, part of the strategy...

The roadhouse in the community of about 300 people has many roles: It’s an Iditarod logistics hub, community center and a burger stop.

This year 78 mushers are signed up to drive dog teams in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, but only a third of them are women. In the Yukon Quest, only 3 of 26 mushers who started this year were women. Despite the small numbers, many are up-and-coming mushers who are redefining what it means to run dogs. Download Audio

Meet Dusty, a leader on Iditarod rookie Jennifer LaBar’s team.

Defending champion Dallas Seavey was the first musher to leave of Ophir. Brent Sass later passed him on the trail.

Leaders in the 40th Iditarod were in Rainy Pass late Monday morning, including Ray Redington, Jr., Hugh Neff, Aliy Zirkle, Paul Gebhardt, Jim Lanier and Cim Smyth. The group also included past champions Lance Mackey and rival Jeff King. Defending champion John Baker was out of Finger Lake and not far behind the leaders.

Race officials put tight restrictions on who could be near the Iditarod starting line on Sunday, as part of their COVID-19 mitigation plan, leading to a much smaller crowd.

This year's field features 66 mushers, with Ray Redington Jr. drawing the number two bib. Dave Olson is this year's honorary musher and will be wearing number one. Read more to see the full field.

The top ten teams have arrived in Nome, filling out the upper ranks of the 2017 Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Listen now

Welcome to the Iditapod, a podcast about - what else? - the Iditarod, which is, perhaps the only major sporting event still happening -- anywhere. Yep, hanging out by yourself with a pack of dogs is starting to seem better and better every day. It’s Friday the 13th, and there’s plenty of scary news out there to worry even the least superstitious among us. We talked coronavirus with new Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach and have a story from the trail about mushers’ first reactions to hearing about the virus's impacts elsewhere. We also have a story about John Schandelmeier and how the heck he got into this race, as well as a listener question, an answer to that question, and a dog profile.

Hunter Keefe’s dog Senior brings years of Iditarod experience to his musher’s rookie run.

Seavey regained the lead after a two-hour penalty earlier in the race.

Three dogs were killed in the crash on the Denali Highway east of Cantwell.

Instead of hiding in our cozy little radio studio at Alaska Public Media or out on the sparsely populated Iditarod Trail, we took the Iditapod to the Beartooth Theatrepub in Anchorage on Monday, March 2 for a live, onstage event, where about 300 people joined reporters Zachariah Hughes, Tegan Hanlon and Casey Grove for a wide-ranging discussion with Iditarod mushers Jessica Klejka, Matthew Failor and Jeff King.

Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King says he took 30 minutes to think about it and then said yes.