Iditarod - The Last Great Race

The Iditarod is an 1100 mile dogsled race from Willow to Nome, Alaska. I think you have to be a little insane to compete, temps this year went down to -5oF!!! I like my body parts too much to expose them to that! Jeff King took top honors this year in a super close race. I got to see both the ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and the official start in Willow this year. The following pictures were taken at the official start.



The starting line is on a frozen lake and was packed with tons of people cheering on their favorite musher(s), snowmachines and of course all the dogteams. It's quite the event, some groups even had their grills going and were having a big ol'party. My friends and I decided that next year we should do the same.



Hee hee...some mushing humor for you. One of the prettiest teams I saw, all siberian huskies I think. Some of the teams are pretty motley looking, but as we know looks aren't everything. One dog handler we talked to said mutts are some of the best dogs for mushing.



Dog teams all harnessed up and ready to go. Every team had tons of handlers to help keep the ganglines straight and the dogs in line as they waited their turn at the start line. Tamsin and I watching the teams go by as they head to Nome.



That's Robert Sorlie, last years winner, putting fat in between the dogs foot pads and then putting their booties on. I think he said the fat helps prevent snow from balling up and freezing, (don't quote me on that). He didn't run this year but his nephew did. I'm not sure who this is coming up the hill, with 84 teams it was hard to keep track. You could get pretty close to the teams as the came up this hill which was pretty cool.