Four-time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Jeff King wants the 1,000-mile race across Alaska to change.
In an opinion piece published in the Anchorage Daily News, King proposes that roughly the first third of the race should be untimed. King says there would be a deadline to reach a particular checkpoint -- he suggests McGrath, more than 300 miles into the race -- and teams that met the deadline would then undergo a race restart, with the race clock ticking for the remaining trail to Nome.
King also thinks the Iditarod should return to a limit of 14 dogs per team, down from the current limit of 16.
King says his proposals are meant to support more mushers finishing the race, prevent dog deaths and lower the burden on Iditarod staff.
The Iditarod did not respond to a request for comment.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Jeff King: The race has had an increase in scratches, of mushers not being able to complete the event for one reason or another. And the number of entrants is down, and the disparity between first and last is often pretty dramatic.
I believe many mushers and all the dogs would benefit from, predictively, having a pace through (the first third) that was less aggressive. And I was really bummed to see how many teams had to scratch last year. These people put in so much effort and money. They don't really have a story to tell when it's over. The story they tell is not a good one. And as rare as fatalities of dogs are, it's still happening, and I just don't think where we are now is going to work as well as it would if we made these changes.
Casey Grove: And just to play devil's advocate, you know, I imagine maybe some of the more established teams, with maybe bigger kennels to draw on, they might say they've shown that they can do this race safely in the times that they're doing them. What would be your response, I guess, to the concern that it would make the race too easy, that it would hurt its reputation as being such a tough sled dog race?
JK: I'd ask them if they thought that was the case for (instituting) the 24-hour break and, you know, why at one point there was no limit on the number of dogs. We have to think of the big picture, not one or two teams that can pull it off. I still think whatever team would win the race without this rule — I think Jessie Holmes would have won last year's race under these rules, but more people would have finished, and there would have been less expense. And hopefully we'd have been able to spot whatever the issue was with the dog that died in last year's race. So, you know, just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done.
CG: Given that you've made the these recommendations in the Anchorage Daily News, why not take that directly to the Iditarod? Or is it a case of, like, they haven't been receptive to this already?
JK: I sent this proposal to the board of directors and the rule committee in April, this past April. I confirmed it was received, and, to date, I have not had a response.
