NOME, Alaska — Matthew Failor mushed his dog team a helluva long way in the Iditarod to find out the gender of his next child.
When the Mansfield native, with 21-month-old son, Theo, in his arms, raced into Nome on Saturday evening at the end of a 1,128-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, his wife, Liz, had a surprise for him.
If and when the 43-year-old St. Peter’s High School graduate races in his 15th Iditarod race across Alaska, he will have a second son welcoming him at the finish line.
Liz Failor, who is expecting the couple’s second child in August, had gone to her doctor while her husband was racing from Fairbanks to Nome.
She learned the gender of the child and decided to surprise her husband when he rolled under the famed burled arches in Nome in 11th place on Saturday night.
“Matt doesn’t know if it’s a boy or girl,” Liz Failor told Richland Source during the race. “I found out after he left on the race. I’m going to tell him at the finish line with either pink or blue booties.”
Joined by Matt’s mom and dad, Mansfield residents Tim and Cheryl Failor, she presented her husband with the box. “The best is yet to come,” was written on the lid.
The Iditarod.com Insider journalist interviewing Failor at the finish line said it was a first for her.
“I’ve had engagements. I’ve had memorials. I’ve had sisters coming in hand-in-hand. I have never done a gender reveal at the finish line. Matt and Theo, you have a box to open,” she said.
As the lid came off, a pair of blue boots was revealed, along with a ultrasound photo.
Matthew Failor raised the booties above his head to show the crowd and yelled, “It’s a boy! Wooooooo!!”
Males run in the Failor family.
Among Tim and Cheryl’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, just one in 11 is a girl, according to Matthew Failor’s sister, Katie Failor.
Liz Failor, who met Matthew Failor during a previous Iditarod while covering the race for an Alaskan TV station, acknowledged the continuing trend after her husband opened the box.
They were married in 2020 at their home in Willow where they own and operate Alaskan Husky Adventures.
“We can’t change the team colors,” she said with a laugh.
(Photos below were taken by Tim Failor at the finish line Saturday night in Nome. The story continues below the images.)
‘The Yukon River was as challenging as one would expect’
Failor finished the longest Iditarod in the event’s 53-year history when he crossed the line in 12 days, seven hours, 37 minutes and 22 seconds.
He had seven of his original 16 dogs in harness. The others were dropped off along the trail and returned to the family’s kennel in Willow.
At the finish line, after officials checked his sled to make sure he had all the required equipment and paperwork, the Ohio State University graduate admitted it was a challenging race.
A big part of that challenge was created when race officials moved the re-start to Fairbanks and changed the trail to avoid low snow areas in southeast Alaska.
A thank you to our sponsors
Richland Source today offers a special thank you to all the St. Peter’s School alumni who came together to make this extensive coverage of Matt Failor’s 14th Iditarod race possible.
Without their support we would not have been able to deliver the in-depth reporting, stunning imagery, or up-to-the minute results through his 12 days on the trail from Fairbanks to Nome.
It put the mushers on the Yukon River for hundreds of miles, including traveling through a blinding sand/slit blizzard on the second day of the race near Tanana.
Failor admitted to his wife when he got to the next checkpoint that he and his team were lost for nearly an hour on the run, mushing through the darkness. He said his team got turned around in the sandstorm.
“We got blown way off to the left after overshooting the trail to the right. Very slippery glare ice with sand blowing everywhere,” he told his wife during the race.
After finishing, he again mentioned the river.
“Oh man, the Yukon River was as challenging as one would expect. It was really frozen and kind of jumbled on the way down and then it was blowing and snowing and slow on the back part of it,” Failor said.
“It didn’t get too cold. But the whole start of the race was super warm. So when it did get to like 20-below (zero), it felt really cold,” he said.
He said the wind was also a factor, especially during the 50-mile run from Shaktoolik to Koyuk.
“It was straight in your face the whole time … like probably 30 miles an hour consistently. So that was a challenge,” he said.
Failor said his lead dogs, at the finish, were wearing booties used in 1992 by Iditarod finisher and former race Judge Jim Davis. Failor scattered his late friend’s ashes on the trail this year, which he carried in the booties.
Davis, 75, died after a cardiac event in 2024.
And with that, Matthew, Liz and Theo climbed onto the back of the sled. The veteran musher offered one final command.
As the dogs pulled the sled away from the finish line, the 2025 Iditarod was over.
But the Failor family is just beginning.
