Who wins the race if the teams don all start at the same time?
In the Iditarod, the first musher to cross the finish line (determined by the nose of the lead dog) wins the race, no matter what his or her starting position was. The reason that this works is because the race rules provide a mechanism to equalize the times in the middle of the race. This is called the Common Start Differential Rule. The easiest way to understand this rule is that you could think of every team having a head start on the last-to-start team. All teams except the last-to-start team must be delayed for the exact amount of each particular team’s head start during the race. This delay is added to the mandatory 24-hour rest stop in the race. This means that the first team to start the race can have over two hours added to their 24-hour rest stop because 55-80 mushers run in the Iditarod every year.
