UPDATE: Morgan Martens placed second in the 2024 Junior Iditarod. The video of him crossing the finish line can be found on the Martens mushing Facebook page.

Morgan Martens won first place in the Junior Iditarod at age 14 back in 2021. Coincidentally, that Junior Iditarod was also his first ever dog sled race.

He also competed in 2022 and 2023 where he won third place and second place respectively. However, he’s now hopeful he will win this year despite the setbacks of a warm winter in the Northland.

“Not very many people in the entire world have the opportunity to even get behind the dog sled,” Martens said. “Having that experience of up in Alaska in the middle of nowhere wilderness. It’s a pretty cool experience that gives you a lot of confidence.”

Sled dog racing has played a big part of Morgan Martens life. His mother and older sister were mushers as well. When he was 14, his family had a once in a lifetime opportunity with Ryan Redington.

“Back in 2021, he needed a place to stay and to keep his dog. We had an extra dog lot and his dogs were able to stay on our property. In return, he asked me to run junior Iditarod with his team,” Martens said. “I happily said yes. Even though I knew it was going to be a lot of work and a big endeavor to take on. Ever since then, we’ve been training together and I’ve been learning from him and seizing every opportunity I can.”

Martens is flying out to Alaska this week, but he’ll be getting to work right away with sled dog race training with snow when he arrives.

“I’ll be up in Alaska training my junior Iditarod team, getting reacquainted with them since it’s been two months since I’ve trained with them last. We’ll do four or five training runs up there and then we’ll probably give them a few days off before the race. It’s going to be awesome this year. It’s going to be a very good experience and I’m looking forward to it very much.”

While this might be Martens last Junior Iditarod race. He already plans on having a long sled dog racing career.

“There’s going to be 21 racers in Junior Iditarod this year and these are some of the most professional teams in the entire world that we’ll be racing against. They come from everywhere to run this race, and it’s high competition, but you also meet some very high quality people.”

The Junior Iditarod Race begins 10:00am on Saturday, February 24, 2024 at Knik Lake. Mushers will travel from the start, and go through Eagle Quest. Then they will continue to the half way point at Yentna Station Roadhouse where they will take a 10 hour layover. Finally, they will return the next day along the same route to the finish line on Knik Lake.

For more information about the Jr. Iditarod you can read more here. Also for other stories about the Iditarod you can read more here.