Editor’s note: Richland Source is posting daily updates on Mansfield native Matthew Failor’s efforts at the 2024 Iditarod Sled Dog Race, which began March 3. Updates post daily at 8 a.m. and may be updated during the day.
(UPDATE: Matthew Failor arrived at the Shaktoolik checkpoint Monday at 12:58 p.m. ADT with the 12 remaining dogs on his team. He began a rest period and will then head to Koyuk, which is 804 miles into the nearly 1,000-mile race.)
(UPDATE: Matthew Failor checked out of Unalakleet on Monday at 7:41 a.m. ADT after an extended rest period. He arrived there Sunday night at 10:04 p.m. ADT. The reason for the extended stop for Failor and several other mushers at Unalakleet hasn’t been announced.)
ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL, Alaska — Theo Failor had no problem finding his dad on the television screen, even when his father was buried under a huge parka with a wolf-wolverine fur ruff.
In fact, the 8-month-old son of Matthew and Liz Failor, Theo used his first spoken words to call his father out by name this week during the 2024 Iditarod in Alaska.
“Theo LOVES his daddy and we have been having a blast watching him on Iditarod Insider,” Liz Failor said Sunday.
“I’ve often got it pulled up on my phone or the TV. When he hears Matt’s voice in an interview, he immediately starts looking around for him.”
The family made the decision going into this year’s nearly 1,000-mile journey from Anchorage to Nome that Liz and young Theo would watch the race from the family home in Willow, before flying out to watch Matthew Failor cross the finish line.
But out of physical sight doesn’t mean the Mansfield native is out of his family’s hearts.
“It’s really nice to be able to see/hear him on Iditarod Insider. It makes such a difference to see his face and read his expressions, and especially for Theo to be able to see Matt,” Liz Failor said.
“We were watching Matt on the TV the other day with my dad. I was pointing out where ‘Da-Da’ was on the screen and Theo was chewing on a toy.
“All of a sudden, we heard him say ‘Da-Da!'”
“We couldn’t get him to repeat it, but we’re pretty sure that was his first word!” she said.
This year’s race is the first time Liz Failor hasn’t been at the race since the couple met in 2018 when she was covering the Iditarod as a reporter for a local CBS television station.
“He asked me out two days after the race and we’ve been together ever since. Fast forward to 2020, we got married, and my news station closed because of COVID. That’s when Iditarod Insider reached out to me and offered me a spot on their team,” she said.
She admitted it’s a little strange not being on the trail this year, though one-on-one contact is difficult even when covering the race.
“The trail is completely off of the road system, so you aren’t able to see your musher at a checkpoint unless you fly there,” she said.
“The race is so remote that Matt hasn’t been able to call us. He was able to text us from a couple spots where he could connect into the Starlinks that the checkpoints were using,” Liz Failor said.
“But Theo keeps me so busy that I actually think the time feels like it’s going by faster. I can’t imagine being away from Theo right now … he is my world. While I do miss my colleagues, I’m happy to be at home with my little one this year,” she said.
“Needless to say, I think Theo is missing Matt just as much as I am, and we can’t wait to see him in Nome. We are flying there tomorrow, and we will meet him at the finish line,” Liz Failor said.
‘Da-Da’ Failor is prepped for race along the coast
What Liz and Theo watched on Sunday on their TV screen was largely Matthew Failor keeping his dogs rested and prepping for a sprint along the coast in the final stages of the race in sub-zero temperatures.
His efforts came on a day that two other teams saw dogs die on the trail (see notes below).
The veteran musher, a 2000 graduate of Mansfield St. Peter’s High School, reached the Kaltag checkpoint on Saturday at 10:51 p.m. (Alaskan time), 629 miles into the race.
He took a four-hour and 36-minute break at the stop and resumed the trail at 4:27 a.m. to begin the 85-mile run down to Unalakleet (you-na-la-kleet).
Failor, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on the trail Sunday, dropped off one of his dogs at Kaltag and continued on with 13 members of his original 16-member team.
With a population of 882, Unalakleet is situated on the coast of Norton Sound, just north of the Unalakleet River, and is considered the gateway to the Bering Sea.
Failor, taking a long rest break at the Old Woman Cabin along the way, arrived at Unalakleet Sunday night at 10:51 p.m. after 17 hours and 37 minutes on the trail.
As of 3:30 a.m. AKDT, Failor was still resting with his team at Unalakleet, according to the Iditarod.com Insider GPS tracker.
For comparison’s sake, current race leader Dallas Seavey, a third-generation, five-time Iditarod winner, was pushing his team harder.
Seavey, who has 11 of his original 16 dogs still running, left Kaltag on Saturday night at 9:01 p.m. after a break of two hours and 25 minutes. He arrived in Unalakfleet 14 hours, 49 minutes later at 12:50 p.m.
Seavey didn’t rest at the popular checkpoint, continuing another 10 miles down the trail before pulling over. It wasn’t a lengthy rest because he and his team covered the 40 miles to the next checkpoint in Shaktoolik in eight hours and two minutes, pulling in at 9:13 p.m.
Again, Seavey chose not to rest at the break. As of Monday morning, he traveled another 57 miles before stopping to rest his team along the trail. Seavey has traveled 771 miles in the race with 204 more to go.
(Below are analytics showing Matthew Failor’s running and resting periods through the Unalakleet checkpoint late Sunday night.)
Is a final sprint in order?
Only the mushers know the true condition of their dogs, who are examined by veterinarians at checkpoints along the way.
Failor is known for the excellent care of his 17th-Dog team members, part of the Alaskan Husky Adventures team that he and Liz own and operate in Willow.
Failor, a multi-time humanitarian award winner in mid-distance racing, has earned several awards at the end of Iditarod races, including Most Improved Musher (2023 and 2018), Musher’s Choice (2016), Sportsmanship (2021) and Most Inspirational (2022).
Earlier in this year’s race, Failor was asked about his team’s relatively slower start.
“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 a few days ago.
As of Monday at 2:30 a.m. AKDT, Failor had traveled 714 miles in the 2024 Iditarod with 261 miles remaining, choosing to rest his team more often and for longer periods.
After finishing 8th in 2023, Failor said before the race he was hoping to improve on that effort, and perhaps even achieve a Top 5.
Ten teams had pulled out of Unalakleet ahead of Failor as of Monday at 3:45 a.m. Failor was 14th into the checkpoint.
News and images from the 2024 Iditarod trail — 2 dogs perish Sunday
Rare canine deaths
Two dogs died Sunday on the Iditarod trail, according to race officials.
At approximately 10 p.m., George, a 4-year-old male from the race team of Hunter Keefe, collapsed on the trail roughly 35 miles outside of Kaltag en route to Unalakleet.
Attempts to revive George were unsuccessful. A necropsy will be conducted by a board-certified pathologist to make every attempt to determine the cause of death, race officials said.
In his second Iditarod, Keefe of Knik, Alaska scratched Sunday at 11:30 p.m. at the Unalakleet checkpoint pursuant to Rule 42. Keefe had 10 dogs in harness when he scratched, race officials said.
The death came after another dog died Sunday morning. according to race officials.
At approximately 9:46 a.m. Bog, from the race team of rookie musher Isaac Teaford, collapsed approximately 200 feet from the Nulato checkpoint, about 582 miles into the race.
Iditarod checkers and a veterinarian approached the team and CPR was administered for 20 minutes. But the animal died at the scene.
A necropsy will be conducted by a board-certified pathologist to make to try to determine the cause of death, race officials said. A U.S. Navy veteran from Salt Lake City, Utah, Teaford withdrew from the race at the Nulato checkpoint.
Race officials adopted a new rule ahead of the 2019 Iditarod that says if a dog dies, the musher must voluntarily drop out of the race or they will be withdrawn unless the dog died due to an “unpreventable hazard” like a moose encounter.
According to a story in the Anchorage Daily News, the rule was added after a lengthy debate by its governing board.
Some members at the time expressed concern, saying mushers shouldn’t be held responsible for some dog deaths that can’t be prevented. Others believed the Iditarod should take a hard stand against any dogs dying on the trail at all.
It appears to be the first race-related deaths since 2019 among sled dog team members.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights’ group, has often called for the Iditarod to be ended. PETA repeated those calls after Bog’s death Sunday.
“The death count keeps climbing for dogs who are forced to run until their bodies break down, all so the human winner can get a trophy while the dogs get an icy grave,” PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien said.
“PETA is calling for this despicable race to end before more dogs like Bog pay with their lives.”
There were several other retirements from the race on Sunday, after the first several days went by without a single team dropping out.
Rookie Erin Altemus of Grand Marais, Minn., was the first musher to scratch. She made the decision at the checkpoint of Ruby at 9:38 a.m. Sunday “in the best interest of her team,” the Iditarod Trail Committee.
All 10 dogs she arrived with were in good health, race officials said. She was running last when she retired from the race.
At the Galena checkpoint, rookie Connor McMahon of Carcross, Yukon Territory, scratched at 4:30 p.m. “in the best interest of his team,” according to race officials. The Iditarod Trail Committee said he had 11 dogs in harness at the time and all were in good health.
Veteran Iditarod musher, Deke Naaktgeboren of Fairbanks, Alaska, scratched Sunday at 8:19 p.m. at the Nulato checkpoint “in the best interest of his team.” Naaktgeboren had 10 dogs in harness when he arrived in Nulato, all in good health, race officials said.
— Veteran musher Jessie Holmes of Discovery’s “Life Below Zero” television fame was the first to reach the Unalakleet checkpoint. Holmes arrived Sunday at 12:35 p.m., earning the Ryan Air Gold Coast Award, one ounce of gold nuggets (valued over $1,500) from the Bering Straits region as well as a wood carved loon.
