| The annual dog sled race in Alaska, the
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| | decided to try sled dogs to travel to
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| Iditarod race, is held the second
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| | Anchorage and pick up the medicine.The
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| Saturday in March each year. The race
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| | medicine was taken to Nenana from
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| starts in Anchorage with the finish line
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| | Anchorage by the Alaska Railroad. A dog
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| in Nome, approximate distance of 1,200
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| | sled relay would be used to pick up the
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| miles. The first race was held March 3,
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| | medicine at Nenana, a town north of
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| 1973. Since that first race, the
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| | Anchorage. Twenty mushers volunteered to
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| popularity of this event has grown
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| | relay the medicine from Nenana to Nome,
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| through the years, along with the amount
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| | 674 miles away. It was 50 below zero,
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| of the prize money. The winner of the
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| | when the first musher left Nenana and six
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| 1973 race received $50,000 and today that
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| | days later, on February 2, 1925, the dog
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| amount has increased to around
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| | team of Gunner Kaassen arrived in Nome.
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| $500,000.The mushers spend anywhere from
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| | Legend has it that on this last leg of
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| a few thousand dollars to tens of
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| | the trip, a big gust of wind turned the
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| thousands of dollars on the race. Not
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| | sled over, with the life-saving serum
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| only do they have the entry fee to pay,
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| | falling out onto the snow. Kaassen used
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| but also the cost of their sled, their
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| | his bare hands to dig the serum out of
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| clothes and equipment; plus the cost of
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| | the snow, turned his sled upright and
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| keeping their dogs all year, which
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| | proceeded to finish the trip into
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| estimated total cost of everything runs
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| | Nome.The lead husky of Kaassen's dog team
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| around $60,000. They do have corporate
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| | was Balto. He immediately became a world
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| sponsors who sponsor them, which helps to
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| | hero, as the world had been watching this
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| defray their cost.The Alaska Iditarod is
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| | story unfold through newspaper accounts.
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| to Alaska about the same as the Indy 500,
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| | Balto traveled the United States for two
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| the Super Bowl or the Olympics. It is
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| | years after the serum run, with people
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| the longest distance dog sled race in the
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| | celebrating his heroic deeds that helped
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| world. It was originated as a tribute to
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| | save the children in Nome.Then in 1933
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| an actual event which occurred during the
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| | when Balto died, his preserved body was
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| winter of 1925. During that winter of
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| | put on display at Cleveland's Natural
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| 1925, a deadly outbreak of diphtheria had
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| | History Museum. His popularity lives on,
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| struck, threatening all the children of
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| | as in 1995 an animated movie about Balto
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| Nome. They needed the serum to fight
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| | was made.He has become a highlight with
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| this disease, but the serum was in the
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| | the Alaskan children and some are working
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| city of Anchorage, over 1,000 miles away
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| | to get Balto brought back to his home
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| to the southeast.There was one airplane
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| | state of Alaska to the Iditarod Trail
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| that could have been flown to Anchorage
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| | Sled Dog Race Museum in Wasilla.Balto is
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| to pick up the medicine, but it had been
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| | also partly responsible for the Iditarod
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| dismantled and stored for the winter. A
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| | race which was first started in 1973. It
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| large Alaskan wilderness of uninhabited
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| | is held to commemorate the courage of the
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| land lay between Anchorage and Nome.
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| | mushers and the dogs who participated in
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| There was frozen and rough terrain with
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| | that life or death race to save the
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| no roads. As a last resort, it was
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| | children of Nome.
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