Tracking the Iditarod races

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that takes place in Alaska each March has become a tradition for Eagle Grove Elementary fourth graders to follow. The annual long distance race takes a team of 14 sled dogs and its musher (there were more than 50 entries this year) from Anchorage to Nome in 15 days or less, competing to see who can be the fastest and claim the top prize. The trail runs 998 miles and the record is held by Mitch Seavey, set in 2017, completing the race in eight days, three hours, 40 minutes, and 13 seconds.

Fourth graders are excited to study and learn all about the race before it begins.

“We’ve been teaching the Iditarod for about seven years. We have a super realistic fiction book about a girl who’s racing in the Iditarod against a male musher who says girls aren’t tough enough to endure the rugged wilderness,” said Jeanne Herrington, a fourth grade teacher. “In the story, the girl ends up saving the boy’s life after he and part of his dog team fall through the sea ice of Norton Sound.”

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