From Chicago to Anchorage: The Great Race by Jackie Denton

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Today started off really early in downtown Anchorage for the Ceremonial Start for the 2025 Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Dog trucks started arriving around 7:30am which meant that it starting getting loud. The dogs are so excited to start down the trail that they cannot contain themselves. The start is normally 11 miles but due to the lack of snow in Anchorage this year, it was shortened to about a mile and a half. After visiting all of the mushers and their pups, I headed to my trail guarding spot near the end of the race. I made the mistake of laying in a snow berm to get really good pictures of the teams as they passed by. It wasn’t until about 15 teams passed by that I realized that the whole right side of my body was soaked! I decided to stand up and take pictures after that. Every time a team came by the excitement was contagious. The mushers and their teams were just having a blast running through the streets of Anchorage. Once they were finished, the dogs got loaded up to go back to the kennel to get ready for the 7ish hour trip to Fairbanks for the restart on Monday .