World’s Most Famous Sled Dog Race Is Longer Than Ever—Here’s a Look at Iditarod, by Numbers

Sled dogs mushed by Jeff Deeter (33), of Fairbanks, Alaska, run during the Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska on March 1, 2025. Amanda Loman/AP Photo

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—The world’s most famous sled dog race is longer this year than ever before.

Thanks to a lack of snow, this year’s edition of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race needed a new route across the Alaska wilderness. The course change adds more than 100 miles, so teams of dogs will have to pull their mushers over 1,100 miles to the finish line.