Paige Drobny gets a kiss from her husband Cody Strathe at the Iditarod finish line in Willow on March 16, 2021. Drobny finished 19th and Strathe finished 20th in the 2021 Iditarod. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Veteran Iditarod musher and current Mat-Su Borough mayor Vern Halter applauds as Jeff Deeter reaches the finish line of the 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 15, 2021. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Aaron Burmeister, right, talks with Iditarod race winner Dallas Seavey after Burmeister arrived in Willow in second place Monday morning. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Dallas Seavey, right, is greeted by his parents Janine and Mitch Seavey after he arrived in Willow to win the 2021 Iditarod early Monday morning. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Dallas Seavey's team runs into the chute near the finish line of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race race near Willow early Monday morning. Seavey has won the Iditarod and matched a milestone in the world's most famous sled dog race. It's the fifth title for the 34-year-old Seavey, matching the record of most wins by any musher. (Marc Lester/ADN)
Mille Porsild mushes up a hill before Finger Lake on Sunday, March 14, 2021 during the 2021 Iditarod. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
The 2021 Iditarod Sled Dog Race looked different from beginning to end, due to COVID-19 precautions. The race was shorter, the route was different. Mushers, staff and volunteers were subject to many rules, designed to keep everyone as safe as possible. Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the race.
Michelle Phillips tries to decide if she is going to go back to sleep after her phone alarm woke her up an hour early during a rest stop at the mouth of the Happy River on Sunday. Her phone automatically adjusted itself overnight because of Daylight Saving Time, depriving her of an hour's sleep. She decided to go back to sleep for an additional half hour. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Mushers handle their dog care on a cold morning in the McGrath checkpoint on Saturday March 13th. It was around -20 and warming up. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
Ryan Redington with his team in harness (right) stops near a team bedded down near the trail as the race heads toward the checkpoint of Rohn during the Iditarod on Saturday. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
Past Iditarod champions Joar Leifseth Ulsom, right, and Pete Kaiser, middle, pose for a photo together with Richie Diehl in the Ophir checkpoint during the Iditarod on Friday March 12th. The three are close friends and have been traveling close together for sections of the race. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
Dallas Seavey uses a knife to cut blocks of snow to melt in his cooker feeding his dogs during a rest break at the Iditarod checkpoint on Thursday. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
Matt Hall’s sled bag is covered with writing, including encouraging notes from family and the mileage between checkpoints along the route. Photographed in McGrath on Wednesday March 10th. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
Susan Smith is the principal at the school in Takotna. She brought art made by her students to the checkpoint in McGrath so that mushers would see it, although the Iditarod Sled Dog Race is skipping Takotna as a checkpoint this year. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
A snowmachiner drags a pallet to smooth out snow lanes in the new dog lot which has been set up in McGrath to accommodate Covid precautions. It is a tidy and well laid out staging area, complete with parking lanes for the Iditarod teams. (Zachariah Hughes/for ADN)
Ryan Redington leaves the Rohn checkpoint after a quick stop, carrying straw to rest his team during the long run to Nikolai, on Monday, March 8. (Zachariah Hughes / for ADN)
Victoria Hardwick feeds her dog team while resting at the Finger Lakes checkpoint in the Alaska Range during the Iditarod on Monday. (Zacharah Hughes / for ADN)
Wade Marrs drives his sled around a sharp corner on the Susitna River during the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race near Willow on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Iditarod rookie Will Troshynski travels down the Susitna River at the beginning of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Sunday, March 7. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Paige Drobny high-fives people before beginning her Iditarod. Forty-six mushers began the 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race from Deshka Landing in Willow on March 7, 2021. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Aaron Burmeister and his team leave the starting area. Forty-six mushers began the 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race from Deshka Landing in Willow on March 7, 2021. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Zachariah Hughes is a journalist based in Anchorage. He covered several Iditarods from the trail for Alaska Public Media, where he helped start the Iditapod podcast. His coverage of the race has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, NPR, Here and Now, and Marketplace.