Red Lantern winner arrives in Nome as 2024 Iditarod draws to an end

The last of this year’s mushers arrived in Nome early Saturday morning, bringing the 2024 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to a close.

Two Rivers rookie Jeff Reid and his team of seven dogs reached the finish line at 2:22 a.m. Saturday to claim the Red Lantern award, given to the final musher to arrive in Nome. The award comes with a prize of $1,000.

His total race time was 12 days, 11 hours, 22 minutes and 1 second — about 3 days and 9 hours behind the pace set by this year’s champion, Dallas Seavey.

It’s long been Reid’s dream “to come here and be standing under this burled arch with my own team of dogs,” he said at the finish line, according to an Iditarod Insider video. “It’s kind of a surreal feeling, you know, actually being here. Been a long 12 days, but we made it.”

Finishing 29th, Reid was the eighth rookie in a row — starting with Will Rhodes in 22nd place — to reach Nome and wrap up their run of the nearly thousand-mile race.

Out of an initial field of 38 starting competitors, nine dropped out along the trail. The last musher to scratch was Chugiak’s Sean Williams, whose team departed Elim for White Mountain late Wednesday night and hadn’t arrived by Friday morning. He was in contact with race officials “after sufficient progress on the trail was not made,” the Iditarod Trail Committee said, and he scratched at 11 a.m. Friday with 10 dogs in harness, “all in good health.”

The Iditarod finishers banquet, where finalized awards are presented to competitors, is slated to be held Sunday evening.