Editor’s note: Richland Source is posting daily updates on Mansfield native Matthew Failor’s efforts at the 2024 Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Updates post daily at 8 a.m.
(UPDATE: Matthew Failor ended his 24-hour rest period Thursday at 10:04 a.m. AKST (2:04 p.m. EST) and has resumed mushing on the Iditarod trail with still 15 dogs pulling the sled. Failor, now 16th on the leaderboard, is on his way to the next checkpoint in Cripple.)
ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL, Alaska — The waiting (and resting) game for Matthew Failor began Wednesday morning at 9:35 a.m. in Alaska.
That’s when the 41-year-old Mansfield native began his mandatory 24-hour rest period during the 52nd Iditarod Sled Dog Race across Alaska.
All 38 mushers must take the 24-hour stop at a designated checkpoint of their choosing along the nearly 1,0000-mile route between Anchorage and Nome.
It’s what comes next that will prove interesting.
Failor had pulled into third by the time he reached the Ophir checkpoint, passing several teams whose mushers had chosen to take their 24-hour stop at a previous checkpoint in McGrath.
McGrath became like a sled-dog team campground on Wednesday.
With a population of 479, the checkpoint is in a relatively thriving community with two stores, a bar and a restaurant. Many mushers like to make their long mandatory stop there.
Failor chose to push his team another 41 miles past McGrath, hurrying past the checkpoint at Takotna. He then turned north on the trail, arriving in Ophir after a nearly three-hour drive through the remote area.
His break, at 1:35 p.m. in Mansfield, came 352 miles into the race.
During his stop in Ophir, an interviewer with Iditarod.com Insider asked Failor why he continues racing the Iditarod, dubbed “The Last Great Race.” It’s his 12th trek across the state with the first coming in 2012.
“Why do I continue to run the Iditarod? Everybody likes doing it, but there are moments where it’s tiring. Your body’s sore, you’d love to have a hot shower and sleep in a bed. But you don’t need that. You’re out here with your buddies and you’re looking at this beautiful country that you only can see once a year. Not a lot of people will ever experience this place,” Failor said.
“It’s a historic place. And the dogs pulled us here, so it’s a pretty special ride, even though it’s tiring. My feet are very sore, my back is sore. But all that stuff just makes it more special. And then you’re sleep deprived, so everything that you’re thinking about is, is enhanced that much more,” he said with a laugh.
“I’m running Iditarod because I like it, but it does put a strain on the family. My wife (Liz) and our son (Theo) are at home (in Willow, Alaska) and my dad is up (from Mansfield), helping babysit. (Liz’s) mom came up. So I’m going to be gone for 10 or 11 days. It just puts a lot of strain on everyone back home. But we have a great support system,” Failor said.
“I guess there are a lot of people that race Iditarod and they’ll do it once. I guess I’m lucky enough to be able to do it year after year after year. I shouldn’t complain about that because I am lucky to be in position to do that. We have great help, great supporters,” he said.
Failor, whose year-around business is Alaskan Husky Adventures, realizes his goal of a Top-5 finish likely hangs in the balance in the next couple of days.
“You want to do well though. You want to bring a team out here and actually compete. And so it is a little dejecting when you’re not up there with the front-runners, but you have to remember that the dogs are giving it their all, and you’re giving it your all. So you just do your best and see what happens,” he said.
At the time he stopped, Failor only trailed only five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey (see related penalty note at the end of this story) and Jessie Holmes, known for his work on the the Discovery TV series, “Life Below Zero,” which explores lives of some of the residents of Alaska, including how they survive in the sub-zero-degree environment.
Failor chose to rest his “17th-Dog” team in the quiet ghost town of Ophir, population zero. The Bible-reading gold prospectors who settled it in the early part of the 20th century named it for the lost country of Ophir, the source of King Solomon’s gold. Many items and artifacts from that era remain untouched.
On Thursday morning, the teams that stopped at McGrath were coming back to life and were on the move. Several will pass Failor by the time he is able to begin again today, but the strategy behind the 24-hour breaks will have an impact.
The 24-hour breaks are also when the staggered start from Sunday is handled. Teams departed every two minutes from Willow and those times will be evened out by teams being kept longer at the mandatory stop to account for it.
When Failor does resume, in the cooler Alaskan morning air, he can start the 73-mile run to the Cripple checkpoint. Depending on the weather, which has been warm by Alaskan standards, there is a small possibility Failor could make the journey without a lengthy stop.
But he may also choose to rest in the afternoon sun and then finish the trip to the checkpoint in the evening. After another rest, Failor can travel again in the chill of the night on the 70-mile trek to Ruby, running on a trail where fresh snow has been broken by other mushers.
So, the next 24 to 36 hours may well decide if Failor can grasp his goal of a Top-5 finish in this year’s race. The 2000 Mansfield St. Peter’s graduate was 8th in 2023, his first Top-10 finish.
The picture has brightened since his unscheduled rest stop in McGrath on Tuesday when Failor was off the pace.
During an interview with an Iditarod.com Insider team, Failor patiently answered questions, even as he took off his dogs’ running booties to prepare them for what became a four-hour, 21-minute stop.
“Obviously we’re slow moving. I don’t really know the speed, but there was fresh snow and a little bit of overflow. Not bad, just a couple inches, but just slower than I think I would like it to be. But the dogs did fine. I caught a couple of teams, which makes me think that I’m moving faster than them, so that’s good,” Failor said.
Failor is known for taking care of his dogs — no matter what.
“I started the race with two dogs in the team that I didn’t think could maintain 10 or 11 miles an hour. So we tried to keep it real slow and steady at the beginning. The (other) teams started moving away from me and I think I was resting just a little bit more than everyone. So that’s part of the reason,” he said.
“But I’m hoping my conservative style, I guess you’d say, would (pay off in the end). I probably won’t catch those guys in the very front, but hopefully I can kind of stay with the next group. I honestly don’t even know (about other teams). I haven’t looked at any sheets, but there’s still a long way to go and I’m just trying to bank as much rest (as I can) and stay close as I can,” Failor said.
The rest stop in McGrath was not part of his original race plan. But he listens and watches his team at work.
“I was planning on going to Takotna. They could make that run from Nikolai to McGrath to Takotna. They could do that run, but I thought that would be a little bit long for this team, given the fact that we have another 500 miles after that.”
“I thought this was just a wise 50-mile run and then a little break here and continue on,” he said.
He also took a chance to say hello to his family and supporters from the trail.
“I’d just like to say hello to everyone watching and cheering and supporting us. We really appreciate it. Keep up the positive vibes and good energy and we’ll see you guys down the trail. Liz, Theo … my whole family, I love you guys.”
News nuggets from the Iditarod Trail
Another Iditarod connection to north central Ohio
The “voice” of the Iditarod on its Insider web broadcasts is 1989 Ashland University graduate Greg Heister, a veteran sports broadcaster and television producer now living in Kaltag, Alaska.
Heister, who also played golf as an AU student, has been involved with the race since 1992. He has also been a radio/TV sports announcer for many years, starting in Cleveland and then moving to the west coast, where he worked as the radio voice for the Gonzaga University basketball team.
In an article with SB Nation in 2022, Heister explained his love for sports broadcasting.
“I read a book either my sophomore or junior in high school called So You Want to be a Sports Broadcaster by Ken Coleman, who was the voice of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Browns. I used to record the audio from all the Super Bowls and thought that was a great way to leave a legacy, to have your voice associated with a great sporting event. To come full circle, I ended up in Cleveland working at the CBS affiliate for a guy named Casey Coleman, whose father was Ken Coleman. It’s pretty crazy,” Heister said.
The Emmy Award-winning Heister also described what his production company does during the annual race across Alaska.
“I do the live start, the live finish and we do daily feeds to a subscription audience of about 1 million viewers. We broadcast to the world on Iditarod.com. I have a team of guys and we follow the race on snow machines, helicopter, light aircraft. We’re out for 10 days, no shower, little food and we cover the race,” he said.
Iditarod.com’s Insider subscribers have a variety of ways to follow the race, including a GPS tracking system that pinpoints the location and speed of each team, a 24/7, moderated live chat for subscribers, live on-camera updates from Heister and his reporters, and live webcams that travel from one checkpoint to another.
On Wednesday, the service unveiled its new “quad cam,” which offers live looks at multiple checkpoints on the trail.
Injured huskie home and on the mend
On Monday, a canine for musher Dallas Seavey was injured when an aggressive moose attacked the team on the trail.
The 36-year-old Seavey killed the moose with a handgun, but Faloo, one of his dogs, was injured by the moose.
Seavey, a five-team Iditarod champion, took Faloo to the next checkpoint and delivered her to the veterinarians there. She was flown to Anchorage and underwent surgery.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Seavey’s team announced the good news — Faloo was on the mend and was being returned to her home kennel in Talkeetna, Alaska.
Seavey’s grandfather, Dan Seavey, competed in the first two Iditarod sled dog races in 1973 and 1974, as well as the 1997 and 2012 races.[His father, Mitch Seavey, has also competed in multiple Iditarods, winning in 2004, 2013 and 2017.
Seavey had taken the lead in the 2024 Iditarod by Wednesday morning, setting an aggressive pace with his 15 remaining dogs.
Seavey penalized for not ‘properly gutting moose’
Iditarod officials Wednesday imposed a two-hour time penalty on Seavey for not properly gutting the moose he killed Monday.
Race marshal Warren Palfrey convened a three-person panel of race officials to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the moose, which became tangled up with Seavey and his dog team early Monday, about 12 hours after the race officially started.
If a musher kills a big game animal like a moose, caribou or buffalo in defense of life or property during the race, rules require they gut the animal and report it to officials at the next checkpoint.
Seavey, a five-time Iditarod champion, encountered the moose shortly after leaving the checkpoint in Skwentna. He used a handgun to shoot and kill it about 14 miles (22 kilometers) outside the village Monday at 1:32 a.m.
According to the panel’s findings, Seavey spent about 10 minutes at the kill site, and then mushed his dog team about 11 miles before camping on a three-hour layover.
The team then departed at 5:55 a.m. for the next checkpoint, arriving in Finger Lake at 8 a.m., where Seavey reported the kill.
“It fell on my sled; it was sprawled on the trail,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew at the Finger Lake checkpoint, where he urged race officials to get the moose off the trail.
Rule 51 in part states: Time penalties will be imposed when determined by race officials a rule infraction has occurred and a competitive advantage has been gained. Time penalties require a majority decision of a three-member panel of race officials appointed by the Race Marshal. Time penalties may be imposed up to a maximum of eight (8) hours per infraction and will be added to either the twenty- four (24) hour layover, the eight-hour layover on the Yukon River, the eight (8) hour layover at White Mountain, or after the musher finishes in Nome.
Rule 34 states: – Killing of Game Animals: In the event that an edible big game animal (i.e., moose, caribou, buffalo), is killed in defense of life or property, the musher must gut the animal and report the incident to a race official at the next checkpoint. Following teams must help gut the animal when possible. No teams may pass until the animal has been gutted and the musher killing the animal has proceeded. Any other animal killed in defense of life or property must be reported to a race official, but need not be gutted.
As per rule 34, it has been determined that the animal was not sufficiently gutted by the musher. By definition, gutting: taking out the intestines and other internal organs of (a fish or other animal) before cooking it, race officials said.
The panel unanimously determined a two-hour hour time penalty will be assessed when Seavey takes his 24-hour break. The race leader on Wednesday night, Seavey is expected to take his mandatory 24-hour break when he reaches the Cripple checkpoint later in the evening.
Two hours can make a big difference in the Iditarod. Last year, just over an hour separated first and second place.
