WILLOW, Alaska — Training races are complete. Drop bags with food are filled for checkpoints.
In other words, the hay is largely in the barn for Mansfield native Matthew Failor and his Alaskan Husky Adventures 17th-Dog teams for the 2025 Iditarod Sled Dog Race, the 53rd annual race across Alaska.
Two members of his team, mushers Dane Baker and Kaci Murringer, completed the Twin Rivers 200 this weekend, racing some of the Alaskan Husky Adventure dogs that will run for Failor and Baker when they both compete in the nearly 1,000-mile race across Alaska that begins March 1.
Murringer, a Michigan native, finished eighth in the Twin Rivers race in 35 hours, 24 minutes. She averaged 7.9 miles per hour while racing and gave her dogs more than 12 hours of test along the way.
Murringer is Alaskan Husky Adventures lead guide. She has been training and racing sled dogs for more than 25 years, having participated in her first sled dog race when she was 7 years old.
She and her pet dog, Monty, have been with the 17th-Dog kennel since 2018. In 2020, she completed her first Iditarod with the an Alaskan Husky Adventures yearling team.
Failor had said Murringer would race a team at Twin Rivers to allow him to spend time at home with wife, Liz, and son, Theo, during a busy racing season.
Baker, also from Michigan, was the last of 10 mushers to cross the finish line in the Twin Rivers race, earning the “Red Lantern” award in a time of 37 hours, 18 minutes.
Competing with what Failor dubbed a “puppy team” from the Alaskan Husky Adventures kennel, Baker averaged 8 miles per hour while moving, but gave the young dogs nearly 15 hours of rest along the trail.
Baker started mushing right after high school as a “gap year” before going to college. He never ended up going to college as he fell in love with dog mushing. After a couple seasons of mushing in the Upper Peninsula, he found himself in Alaska and has pretty much been there ever since.
For the last number of years he’s worked for Alaskan Husky Adventures.
(Below are photos from Matthew Failor showing drop bag preparations for the upcoming 2025 Iditarod Sled Dog race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. The story continues below the photos.)
In a Facebook post on Friday, Failor described the busiest season of the year for his sled dog racing teams.
“The last few days have been fast paced and filled with work around the clock! We finished up our drop bags for both Dane and I and ran those down to Anchorage today. At the same time, Dane, Kaci and (handler) Jaren (Ulrich) drove to north to race in the Two Rivers 200 which starts tomorrow at noon AK time!!” Failor posted Friday.
“This is the first opportunity for Dane and his puppies to get in a race, since the Su Dog was canceled. Kaci has a blended team of dogs that’ll go on both of our teams in Iditarod. Jaren is tasked with handling for both teams!” Failor posted.
Drop bags for each team totals 1,650 pounds of food and supplies, Failor said.
“Two types of kibble, beef, beef fat, chicken, horse, turkey, pork belly, salmon at every checkpoint,” Failor posted on Facebook.
Failor, a Class of 2000 St. Peter’s High School graduate who raced in the Copper Basin 300 and the Kuskokwim 300 earlier this year, will be making his 14th Iditarod start when the “The Last Great Race” begins.
Failor finished last year’s Iditarod in 13th place clocking in at 10 days, 2 hours and 35 minutes.
He was in position to chase another Top 10 (or perhaps Top 5) finish during the race when he stopped to help and spend time with a young musher who had a dog perish on the trail.
Failor’s best Iditarod finish was eighth in 2023.
