The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, one of the most enduring physical challenges in sports, was won on Friday by former reality television star Jessie Holmes.

Holmes crossed the finish line in Nome, Alaska, at 2:55 a.m. in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds after the 53rd edition race started in Fairbanks on March 3. He previously finished third in 2022 and 2024 and will take home the largest percentage of the $500,000 purse for winning this year’s race.

The route of 1,129 miles was extended because of lack of snow in the area. The Iditarod trail is usually 1,000 miles.

“It’s hard to put into words, but it’s a magical feeling,” Holmes said after the race. “It’s not about this moment now. It’s about all those moments along the trail.”

It was Holmes’s eighth time competing in the Iditarod as only 33 mushers started the race, tied for the fewest ever.

From 2015 to 2023, Holmes was on the National Geographic program, “Life Below Zero,” which follows hunters and remote life in Alaska.

Ten mushers didn’t finish the race, and one pregnant female dog on the team of musher Daniel Klein died. Klein was forced to withdraw because of the death.