"The Last Great Race on Earth" takes place in Alaska each March, as mushers and teams of 12-14 dogs race through the wilderness from Anchorage to Nome. To log a qualifying time, a musher needs at least five dogs pulling the sled across the finish line.

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,

When unseasonably warm temperatures left the Iditarod course unusable, organizers were forced to reconfigure a 1,128-mile course through the Alaskan wilderness. The result is a race like nothing before in the event’s 53-year history.