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Please mod this 😛 Fr I’d be happy

TODAY IS THE 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT RACE OF MERCY AKA 1925 SERUM RUN!!
Ok ok lemme explain:

In Alaska the winter 1924-1925, the small town of Nome was suffering from an outbreak of diphtheria, a deadly disease. There was only one doctor in Nome at the time, Curtis Welch, and the antitoxin in the hospital had expired. The ice made it impossible to deliver the medicine by ship, and with Alaska’s unreliable winter weather, delivering by plane was not an option either. The only way to deliver the antitoxin was dog sleds.

The stretch that was to be covered by dog sleds was 674 miles, or 1,085 kilometers. A total of 20 mushers and around 150 sled dogs all covered part of the stretch, in a race that took 5 ½ days. The final leg of the race was covered by Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog, Balto. Being the dog to arrive in Nome with the medicine, Balto gained a whole lot of fame, and might just be the most famous dog in history today. However, while seen as the great hero of the story, Balto was in fact not considered that amazing a sled dog, and after finishing the race, he retired and became a show dog.

The longest leg was covered by Leonhard Seppala, and his lead dogs Togo and Fritz. Togo and his team ran 91 miles or 146 km, compared to Balto’s 53 miles or 85 km, part of it through a blinding blizzard, trusting Togo’s sense of smell to keep them on track. After the serum run, Togo stayed a sled dog and lived the rest of his life with his owner.

On the 2nd if February, 1925, Gunnar Kaasen, Balto, and the other dogs in their team arrived in Nome, saving the town and surrounding area from an epidemic that Welch had considered almost inevitable.

In my opinion, all dogs and their mushers deserve a massive shoutout for their heroic actions, and the fact that it all ended exactly 100 years ago as of today is… cool, to say the least. And despite some dogs covering more or less dangerous legs of the race and some dogs running longer or shorter stretches, all sled dogs and mushers were true heroes.

Soooo I hope I educated some of yall a little lol