The
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is an annual long-distance
sled dog race run in early March from
Anchorage to
Nome, which takes place entirely in the
US state of
Alaska.
Mushers and a team of 16 dogs, of which at least 6 must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in 9–15 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. The current fastest winning time record was set in 2014 by
Dallas Seavey with a time of 8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, and 19 seconds. As of 2012, Dallas Seavey was also the youngest musher to win the race at the age of 25, while as of 2013, at the age of 53, Dallas' father Mitch Seavey was the oldest person to ever win the race.