Former reality TV star wins longest-ever Iditarod

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Jessie Holmes, a former reality television star, won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Friday, celebrating with fist pumps to a cheering crowd and posing for photos with his two floral wreath-adorned head teammates, Hercules and Polar.

Holmes was first to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome on the Bering Sea coast. The race began March 3 in Fairbanks after a lack of snow forced changes to the route and starting point.

That made the normally 1,000-mile race a staggering 1,129 miles across the Alaska wilderness. Holmes finished in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes, 41 seconds.

"It's hard to put into words, but it's a magical feeling," Holmes said shortly after crossing the finish line. "It's not about this moment now. It's about all those moments along the trail."

He will take home $57,200 for winning the race, along with $4,500 worth of gold nuggets and 25 pounds of fresh salmon for finishing first in earlier stages.

Holmes, who was competing for the eighth time, previously finished in the top 10 five times, including third last year and in 2022. In his first Iditarod, in 2018, his seventh-place finish earned him Rookie of the Year honors.

Matt Hall, who was born in Eagle, a tiny community on the Yukon River in eastern Alaska and began mushing at age 2, finished in second place. His parents owned an expedition company, and he grew up with sled dogs and guiding weeklong trips for clients.

This year's longer distance was grueling, he said after crossing the line three hours after Holmes. "It was too long," Hall said with a laugh.

Paige Drobny finished third, becoming the first woman on the podium since Jessie Royer placed third in 2020. It was Drobny's 10th attempt in the race.

Drobny lives in Cantwell, Alaska, with her husband and fellow long-distance musher Cody Strathe where they raise sled dogs at Squid Acres Kennel. The name comes from her master's thesis on squid in the Bering Sea.

Born and raised in Alabama, Holmes left at age 18 and worked as a carpenter in Montana for three years. He arrived in Alaska in 2004 and found adventure running dogs on a remote location of the Yukon River.

"It's been a truly amazing 10 days, and I soaked in every part of it -- the lows, the highs, the in-betweens," Holmes said. "I'm really proud of these dogs, and I love them. And they did it. They deserve all the credit."

He gave a special salute to his two lead canines, Hercules, his half-sprint dog, and Polar, saying, "He's the brains behind the operation."

Holmes now lives in Nenana, where he works as a carpenter and lives a subsistence lifestyle. From 2015 through 2023, he was a cast member of "Life Below Zero," a National Geographic program that documents the struggles of Alaskans living in remote parts of the state.

Besides the lack of snow north of the Alaska Range that forced the change of starting point to Fairbanks, race organizers also had to make changes to the ceremonial start in Anchorage.

With snow trucked in to cover streets in the state's largest city, the usual parade route there was shortened from 11 miles to under 2 miles and the number of dogs was reduced. It was the fourth time in this century that the race was forced north from the Anchorage area because of a lack of snow.

Only 33 mushers started in Fairbanks, tied with 2023 for the smallest field. The drop in participants has raised concerns about the viability of the race, which has had to contend with inflation, climate change and pressure from animal rights groups.

One dog died in this year's Iditarod: a pregnant dog on the team of musher Daniel Klein, who under race rules scratched due to the death.

Nearly one-third of the mushers quit early, including eight who scratched and two who were withdrawn for not being competitive.

This year's Iditarod run paid tribute to another famous mushing event, the 1925 Serum Run, in which sled dog teams saved Nome from a deadly diphtheria outbreak.