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. Stories post daily at 7 a.m. and are updated during the day on the Richland Source Facebook page. This exclusive coverage is made possible through the support of St. Peter’s School and is done with the cooperation of Iditarod.com Insider.
ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL, Alaska — Imagine racing a sled dog team from New York to San Francisco — more than five times.
That’s about the mileage equivalent of what Mansfield native Matthew Failor will have done during his lengthy Iditarod career when he and his Alaskan Husky Adventures 17th-Dog team mush into Nome by Sunday.
It’s Failor’s 14th trek in the normally 1,000-mile dash across Alaska that’s been dubbed “The Last Great Race.” It’s about 2,579 miles from New York to San Francisco which means, … well, you can do the math, too.
The 43-year-old St. Peter’s High School graduate was just 71 miles from the finish line early Saturday morning and will likely finish 12th unless something drastically changes.
That would be his third straight top-15 finish and his second-best finish ever. He was eighth in 2023.
The 2025 edition of the Iditarod is the longest in the race’s 53-year history — 1,128 miles from the official restart in Fairbanks to Nome.
The trail was moved north this year due to low snow amounts in southeast Alaska, only the fourth time the re-start has been moved away from Willow, outside Anchorage.
Welcome to White Mountain — take a break, finally
Failor arrived Saturday at about 1:40 a.m. (AKDT) at the White Mountain checkpoint, a community of 209 residents located on the banks of the Fish River. The stop came after a 49-mile trek from Elim, including a dash across a frozen Golovin Bay.
White Mountain is located 1,057 miles into the 2025 Iditarod with a Saturday morning temperature of 3-below zero and calm winds.
As Failor cruised into the checkpoint, an Iditarod.com Insider talked about his “incredible comeback” from the back of the pack after the Tanana checkpoint.
He joined fellow veteran mushers Nicolas Petit and Riley Dyche at the checkpoint with those two racers running 11th and 10th, respectively.
All mushers must take a mandatory eight-hour break when they get to White Mountain, which means Failor can head back out on the trail around 9:40 a.m. (AKDT)
It was a welcome rest for Failor and the eight remaining dogs in his team, which began with 16 huskies on March 3 in Fairbanks.
After surviving a sand blizzard on the Tanana River and and a “sugary and punchy” trail in the first two days of the race, Failor opted to take his 24-hour break at the Tanana checkpoint, just 202 miles into the race.
All mushers must take a 24-hour mandatory stop during the race at a checkpoint, though normally it would come later in the event, allowing teams to break up the endurance race of man and dog.
The winner of this year’s race, Jesse Holmes, took his 24-hour stop in Kalag, 456 miles into the trail. Second- and third-place finishers Matt Hall and Paige Drobney took their 24-hour stops in Galena, 369 miles into the race.
Taking his 24-hour rest at Tanana meant Failor’s team would basically run almost a full Iditarod (926 miles from Tanana to Nome) without a 24-hour break.
But he wanted to keep his team intact.
“I think half the team, probably three quarters of the team, did not need a 24. So that’s the bummer part,” Failor said during the stop in Tanana.
“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.
“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.
He said at Tanana several of his dogs were stiff and sore when the team pulled into the checkpoint, 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.”
If Failor matches last year’s effort from White Mountain to Nome, he would finish the race under the burled arch in Nome just before 8 p.m. (AKDT).
In 2024, when he finished the approximately 975-mile trek in 10 days, two hours and 35 minutes, Failor mushed from White Mountain to Nome in about 10 hours of racing on the trail.
A year ago, Failor made the run from White Mountain to Safety in just under seven hours. He was in and out of the final checkpoint in three minutes, picking up his No. 31 racing bib, and then mushed for just over three hours to arrive in Nome.
Alaskan Husky Adventures teammate in 22nd place
Rookie musher Dane Baker, a handler who works for Failor’s kennel in Willow, Alaska, was mushing along in 22nd place on Saturday morning.
Baker, racing a “puppy team” of younger dogs from the kennel, had 10 dogs in harness as he mushed his team north of the Shaktoolik checkpoint, 949 miles into the race.
Baker would be one of seven rookies to make it to the finish of the Iditarod. Eight rookies have dropped out along the way. As of Saturday morning, 10 of the 33 teams that began the race have left the trail.
Seven mushers cross finish line
As of Saturday at 6:45 a.m. ET, seven mushers crossed the finish line in Nome.
Jesse Holmes won the race on Friday morning, finishing in 10 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes.
Since then, Matt Hall, Paige Drobney, Michelle Phillips, Bailey Vitello, Travis Beals and Mitch Seavey have crossed under the burled arch.
Ryan Reddington and Mille Porsild were nearing the finish line, running in eighth and ninth.
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.
