Junior Iditarod Junior Iditarod The Junior Iditarod Sled Dog Race, or Jr. Iditarod, is a 148- to 158-mile (222 km) sled dog race for mushers between the ages of 14 through 17, which is patterned after the 1,150-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that is said to be 1,049 miles. The race is held outside Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska, and was the first long-distance race for juvenile mushers. With the encouragement of "Go for it" Joe Redington, Senior, the Jr. Iditarod was established 1977 by Eric Beeman, Rome Gilman, Karl Clausen, Kenny Pugh, and Clarence Shockley, who were unable
Sled dog racing the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, but it did not gain official event status. Sled dogs, known also as sleighman dogs, sledge dogs, or sleddogs, are a highly trained dog type that are used to pull a dog sled, a wheel-less vehicle on runners, over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines. Sled dog races include "sprint" races over relatively short distances of 4 to 100 miles, mid-distance races from 100 to 300 miles, or long-distance races of 300 to over 1,000 miles (Iditarod). Sprint races frequently are two or three-day events with heats run on successive days