The race is meant to commemorate and celebrate the history of Alaska and the critical part that sled dogs have played in the settlement of the state.

To many casual onlookers, the Iditarod is a weird curiosity. The famed sled-dog race, which begins this year on March 1, tasks mushers with trekking roughly 1,000 miles across the snowy Alaskan wilderness with a team of about 12 dogs,

The starting line of the Iditarod sled dog race is being moved from Anchorage to Fairbanks after it didn't snow for more than two weeks along the 20-mile stretch between the two cities.