Rested and ready: Matthew Failor keeps team intact by choosing 24-hour break

Editor’s note: Richland Source is posting daily updates on Mansfield native Matthew Failor’s efforts at the 2025 Iditarod Sled Dog Race, which began March 3. Updates post daily at 7 a.m. and may be updated during the day. This exclusive coverage is made possible through the support of St. Peter’s School.

(UPDATE: Iditarod musher and Mansfield native Matthew Failor arrived at the Galena checkpoint on Friday at 1:41 p.m. (AKST) after a 50-mile run from Ruby.

He made the trip in six hours and 11 minutes and pulled into the checkpoint in 23rd place, having made up four places during the run from Ruby.

After a rest, Failor and his Alaskan Husky Adventures 17th-Dog Team will head to the Nulato checkpoint, another 51 miles down the trail.

Richland Source is providing exclusive local coverage, including daily stories at 7 a.m., supported by our friends at St. Peter’s School, his alma mater.

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(UPDATE: Matthew Failor left the Ruby checkpoint Friday at 7:30 a.m. (AKST) and is on his way to the next checkpoint in Galena 50 miles away. Failor was running in 27th place when he left Ruby, though many mushers have not yet taken or completed their 24-hour mandatory stops, as he did in Tanana. Failor has 13 dogs in harness, having left two behind in Ruby.)

ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL, Alaska — Matthew Failor was not ready to leave several of his friends behind on the Iditarod trail.

That’s what prompted the Mansfield native to take a 24-hour rest break far sooner than expected on Wednesday, just 202 miles into the 1,128-mile trek across Alaska.

After battling through a sand blizzard and glare ice on the Tanana River, along with an unexpectedly “sugary and punchy” trail, Failor examined his Alaskan Husky Adventures 17th-Dog teammates after mushing into the Tanana checkpoint Wednesday at 2:14 a.m. (AKST).

Competing in his 14th Iditarod, he didn’t like what he saw with several members of his 16-dog sled dog team.

Failor decided a long rest was needed for a few of his dogs.

All mushers must take a 24-hour mandatory stop during the race at a checkpoint, though normally it would come later in the event.

Failor made the decision there was no time like the present.

He informed race officials he would take his 24-hour stop at Tanana, which meant he didn’t begin the 117-mile journey to Ruby until Thursday at 2:21 a.m. (AKST) with 15 of his 16 dogs still in harness.

The run between Tanana and Ruby is the longest single journey between checkpoints on this year’s Iditarod trail.

In an interview with Iditarod.com Insider, Failor said most of his dogs did not need a 24-hour rest.

“I think half the team, probably three quarters of the team, did not need a 24. So that’s the bummer part.

“But there were several dogs in the team, that if I left at my scheduled time (of four to six hours), I probably would have had to drop them,” Failor said.

Mushers also have to take a pair of mandatory eight-hour rest breaks along the trail, but rules prohibit doing it until mushers are further along.

“So just coupled with the fact that you can’t take an eight, and it was a perfect time of day, I’ll be leaving at 2 a.m., and maybe the whole team can bounce back,” he said.

“So I know it’s early to take my 24, but I just thought that you’ve got to take it at some point, and if the team … if some of the dogs need it and I don’t want to drop them yet … then take it now,” Failor said.

The Class of 2000 St. Peter’s High School graduate said several of his dogs were stiff and sore when the team pulled into Tanana, likely from battling what he called a “slippery, windy and sandy” environment during the 85-mile trip from Manley Hot Springs.

“Some of the sore muscles might have developed from that. They didn’t show me anything while running, but when I got in here, I found the stiffness.”

Failor said he consulted with veterinarians at the checkpoint.

“The relationship between the musher and the vet team works really well. I asked for their opinions, helping them show me how to stretch (the dogs) … massage them … all that kind of stuff … just bouncing ideas off of their experience.

“I have enough experience now to know whether or not the dog will probably make it down the trail. But from here to Ruby is two or three runs. And if it’s a horrible trail like it could be, you don’t want to (carry) a dog with a full sled,” he said.

“There’s a lot of massaging, a lot of stretching, make sure they get a lot of hydration. If it was just another (40-mile run) run down the river, I wouldn’t have taken a 24 here, but since it was three runs or two runs, I figured it’d be a good time to reset,” Failor said.

After leaving Tanana, Failor and his 15 dogs raced 53 miles in just about six hours, averaging nearly nine miles per hour during the run. He stopped to rest his team along the trail around 8:30 a.m. (AKST), about 64 miles away from Ruby.

As expected, Failor took a second break further down the trail before arriving in Ruby on Friday morning.

Alaskan Husky Adventures rookie teammate into Ruby

Dane Baker, who works as a handler for Failor, pulled into Ruby on Thursday at 7:46 p.m. (AKST), making the 117-mile trek from Tanana in 26 hours, 13 minutes.

Making his first Iditarod journey, Baker pulled into the checkpoint in 20th place. He had not yet taken his 24-hour break.

Baker, a Michigan native, is racing a younger “puppy team” from Failor’s kennel in Willow, Alaska.

Veteran musher wins ‘Feast on the Yukon Award’

Veteran musher Paige Drobney of Cantwell, Alaska, had a feast on Thursday.

Drobney was the first musher to arrive at the Galena checkpoint on the Yukon River on Thursday morning with with 15 dogs in harness.

In doing so, Drobney earned the “Feast on the Yukon Award.” Presented since 1983, this award is typically given to the musher to arrive in Ruby in even years on the Northern Route and the first musher to arrive to the Yukon River in odd years on the Southern
Route.

This year, given the route change, the award was given to the first musher to reach the
Galena checkpoint.

Drobney received a gourmet dinner prepared in Galena by top chefs from Locally Grown Restaurants, which owns the popular Anchorage eateries Spenard Roadhouse, Snow City Cafe, Crush Wine Bistro and South Restaurant and Coffeehouse.

The meal included Alaska King Salmon Crudo with a lemon-thyme oil, roasted butternut squash bisque, charred cabbage salad with candied walnuts, watermelon radish, carrot, onion, apple and a pear vinaigrette, followed by an entrée of braised beef cheek bourguignon, asparagus, rosemary mashed potatoes, sauteed mushroom and shallot leaves. 

There was also a chocolate bourbon pot de créme dessert.

Drobney opted to take her 24-hour break in Galena, which gave her plenty of time to enjoy the feast.

Second rookie musher scratches from race

A second rookie musher opted to end her Iditarod run on Thursday.

Charmayne Morrison of Bozeman, Mont., scratched at 10 a.m. (AKST) at the Tanana checkpoint for what race officials said was “in the best interest of her team.”

Iditarod Communications Director Shannon Noonan said Morrison had 14 dogs in harness when she arrived in Tanana, all in good health.

“Charmayne has been a great competitor in this race and we hope to see her on the Iditarod Trail again in the future,” Noonan said in a press release.

Fellow rookie Brenda Mackey of Fairbanks, Alaska, scratched from the race on Wednesday at 4:35 p.m.

Mackey left the Tanana checkpoint after dropping two of her 16 dogs and continued several miles down the trail before turning around and coming back.

Her decision to scratch was also “in the best interest of her team,” according to Noonan.

There are still 31 teams competing in 53rd annual race.

Our exclusive local coverage of Matthew Failor in the 2025 Iditarod is made possible with the cooperation of the Iditarod Trail Committee. To learn more about the non-profit organization, visit www.iditarod.com. You can also learn how to become an Iditarod Insider and access all of the live streams, GPS tracking system and video interviews with Failor and other mushers.