NOME, Alaska (KTUU) – The 53rd Iditarod belongs to Jessie Holmes.

The Nenana musher — who made his way to Alaska after growing up in Alabama — dominated the race, leading for much of the way and claiming five of the six major checkpoint awards along the way.

Holmes fended off Two Rivers musher Matt Hall and Cantwell musher Paige Drobny to claim the win, crossing under the Burled Arch in Nome just before 3 a.m. Friday, with a finishing time of 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes, 44 seconds.

“It’s been an amazing 10 days and I soaked up every part of it,” Holmes said in an interview with Iditarod Insider minutes after finishing.

Hall finished at 5:59 a.m. as Iditarod runner-up. The Two Rivers musher also placed second last year.

Hall was in good spirits after his finish. In a post-race interview with Iditarod Insider, Hall grinned from ear to ear when asked about the revised course — the race started in Fairbanks instead of Willow due to safety concerns, adding an extra 100 miles to the normally 1,000-mile trek across the Alaska wilderness.

“It was too long,” Hall said with a smile.

Third-place Drobny crossed the finish line at 8:38 a.m. The Cantwell musher was neck-and-neck with Hall in the last few days, which has become somewhat of a trend.

“Since I started racing, Matt Hall and I have always been around each other at this point in the race,” she said earlier this week, “and we always come from a different way, and end a different way. But we always are, like, right around each other for the last third, always doing different things.”

Drobny was first into Ruby and Galena this year, winning a five-course meal after beating the rest of the field into the latter checkpoint.

Her third-place finish comes just two years after finishing The Last Great Race 20th overall. Drobny’s previous best was fifth (2024).

Holmes mused on all the Iditarod icons that came to mind while on the trail.

“Being up in Blueberry Hills [outside Unalakleet] and the most amazing sunset you could ever imagine, the moon shimmering off the glazed snow and the Northern Lights,” Holmes said, ”and thinking about Jerry [Riley], Rick [Mackey] and Lance [Mackey], all the great legends before me looking down on me and telling me I could do it. I just wanted to join that club with them.”

Holmes left White Mountain just before 5 p.m. Thursday, then checked in and out of Safety around 11:45 p.m. with the finish in his sights and never looked back as he sped to his first career Iditarod victory in his eighth attempt.

By the time Holmes arrived in White Mountain, where mushers are required to rest eight hours, he had a three-hour lead.

“I just had to find that fine balance to where I’m keeping the dogs the way I want to see them,” Holmes told AKNS. “Now I trust what I’ve seen over the last few years, that I was holding back a little too much in times. I also, at the same time, didn’t want to jeopardize that.

“It’s really rewarding for me to take a conservative approach and really build a great, healthy dog team and see that pay off.”

As a regular on the reality TV show “Life Below Zero” — which follows subsistence hunters in rural Alaska — Holmes has made a bigger appearance on the statewide mushing scene, having racked up five top-10 Iditarod finishes in seven prior attempts, including two third-place finishes in the past three years.

The 2018 Iditarod Rookie of the Year orchestrated a superb race, taking his mandatory 24-hour rest break at the first run through Kaltag — one of the only mushers in the field to do so at that checkpoint — then taking his required eight-hour break at the second run through Kaltag.

The winner of other major dog sledding races like the Kobuk 440 came into this year’s Iditarod hot, winning the Copper Basin 300near Glennallen in January.