Husky News

A record field of mushers drove dog teams through Alaska’s largest city Saturday in the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Well-bundled fans braved wind-chills hovering just above zero to line up along the 11-mile run from downtown’s Fourth Avenue. Many in the crowd traveled to Alaska just to experience part of the race.

“I decided if I wanted to see the Iditarod, I better get to doing it,” said 91-year-old Roberta Moore, of Sarasota, Fla., who has read about the Iditarod for years.

The actual start of the 1,100-mile race begins Sunday in Willow, about 50 miles to the north. That’s when mushers start seriously chasing after this year’s $875,000 purse, to be paid out among the top 30 finishers to cross the burled arch in Nome. There are 96 teams, including six past winners, in the race this year.

Mushers were relaxed for Saturday’s noncompetitive run, but many of their dogs were wild with eagerness, barking, wagging their tails, jumping in place.

The show is put on for the throngs who come to cheer as their favorite teams lope by on streets packed with trucked-in snow. During the short run, mushers carry passengers, called Idita-Riders, who bid for the privilege in a yearly auction.

As his turn at the symbolic starting line approached, 2007 champion Lance Mackey hustled to put booties on his dogs’ feet. He took frequent breaks to sign autographs and pose for photographs with well-wishers.

“You bet,” he said to a fan’s thanks.

Mackey, a throat cancer survivor, hopes to repeat last year’s historic run. The 37-year-old Fairbanks resident became the first musher ever to win two grueling races back-to-back: the Iditarod and the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Less than two weeks ago, he won his fourth consecutive Quest and is using many of the same dogs for the trek to Nome, an old gold rush town on Alaska’s western coast.

“I feel very excited,” Mackey said. “I’m ready to get on the trails for the free muffins and hot dogs out there.”

Iditarod veteran Ken Anderson was runner-up in his first Quest, finishing just 15 minutes behind Mackey, his neighbor.

“The same drama? Sure, that would be OK,” the 35-year-old musher said of the friendly rivalry with Mackey. “The same finish? Obviously not.”

Anderson also is using many of the same dogs that ran the Quest with him.

Another veteran, Ed Iten of Kotzebue, also is eyeing his first Iditarod win. He’s been a top-10 finisher since 2003, coming in second in 2005. But being a strong contender is no longer enough.

“I’m hungry,” Iten said. “I’m not out here to tour anymore.”

Molly Yazwinski, among 33 rookies in the race, is just in it for the adventure of a race that crosses dense forests, remote tundra and two mountain ranges before the route follows treacherous sea ice up the Bering Sea. It’s her only chance for the near future to pursue this kind of endeavor.

After the Iditarod comes a move to upstate New York to study at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, said the 26-year-old Fairbanks resident.

Her Iditarod goal is “to get to Nome with some happy dogs.”

The Iditarod, begun in 1973, commemorates a run by sled dogs in 1925 to deliver lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome.

Source: AP