Iditarod

[the flying reindeer]

Today is the start of the Iditarod when mushers and their dog teams begin the long-distance sled dog race over 1,100 miles from Willow, Alaska, to Nome, a northern Alaskan port town, re-enacting a race once held to save lives. A statue of Balto, the lead dog in the original race. can be found in New York's Central Park. The Iditarod route takes humans and canines alike through stunningly cold, windy and snowy conditions, and is very competitive.

[the flying reindeer]

If you're interested, here's a link where you can find more information about the race and follow the 2015 edition.
iditarod.com/

[the flying reindeer]

From Wikipedia:

The race's namesake is the Iditarod Trail, which was designated as one of the first four National Historic Trails in 1978. The trail in turn is named for the town of Iditarod, which was an Athabaskan village before becoming the center of the Inland Empire's Iditarod Mining District in 1910, and then turning into a ghost town at the end of the local gold rush. The name Iditarod may be derived from the Athabaskan haiditarod, meaning "far distant place".

The most famous event in the history of Alaskan mushing is the 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the "Great Race of Mercy." A diphtheria epidemic threatened Nome, especially the Alaska Native children who had no immunity to the "white man's disease", and the nearest quantity of antitoxin was found to be in Anchorage. Since the two available planes were both dismantled and had never been flown in the winter, Governor Scott Bone approved a safer route. The 20-pound (9.1 kg) cylinder of serum was sent by train 298 miles from the southern port of Seward to Nenana, where it was passed just before midnight on January 27 to the first of twenty mushers and more than 100 dogs who relayed the package 674 miles from Nenana to Nome. The dogs ran in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles.

The Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog Balto arrived on Front Street in Nome on February 2 at 5:30 a.m., just five and a half days later. The two became media celebrities, and a statue of Balto was erected in Central Park in New York City in 1925, where it has become one of the most popular tourist attractions. However, most mushers consider Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog Togo to be the true heroes of the run. Together they covered the most hazardous stretch of the route, and carried the serum 91 miles, the single farthest of any team.