When unseasonably warm temperatures left the Iditarod course unusable, organizers were forced to reconfigure a 1,128-mile course through the Alaskan wilderness. The result is a race like nothing before in the event’s 53-year history.

This year’s Iditarod race, which began on Monday, March 3, will last a record distance of 1,128 miles, according to the Wall Street Journal, with mushers racing from Fairbanks to Nome in Alaska. This is more than 100 miles longer than the usual route, per the official Iditarod website, with the Iditarod typically called a 1,000-mile race.