Iditarod - "The Last Great Race on Earth"

































Tomorrow (March 3, 2007) is the big day! Early in the morning all 83 mushers will be ready and waiting to start the Iditarod on 4th Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska.









Hailed as "The Last Great Race on Earth", the Iditarod has become an iconic event, with epic tales of adventure and survival on the trail. The Mushers are household names in Alaska, and the dogs themselves are legendary. This year's event should be another amazing race to follow. The Iditarod (pronounced eye-DIT-a-rod) consists of teams of 12 to 16 dogs pulling a sled driven by a man or woman, called a "musher."









At the Ceremonial start on Saturday morning, 4th Avenue in downtown Anchorage turns into an Alaskan festival. Men with cougar head hats & fox fur jackets walk down the street, children line up to get the autograph of their favorite musher, and families get downtown early to make sure they get a good spot to view the day’s activities.









Mushers leave downtown Anchorage in the same order that they will depart onto the trail on Sunday.









At 10 am, the first musher will leave the start line. This year the first musher to leave the start will be an honorary musher dedicated to Iditarod Legend Susan Butcher, who pasted away last year of Leukemia.










The annual dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska covers an 1150 mile course in roughly 10 to 17 days. A track and field race through wide-open spaces for the four-legged, gold-medal athletes of the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race! Mushers and 1,000 dogs dash toward the Bering Sea coast through rugged remote mountain ranges, snow-capped forests, and frozen lakes. Dodging bear, moose and host of other elements – its 1,150 miles of pure adrenaline!











How would you like to be in a race that is more than 1,000 miles long, involves treacherous climbs, and lasts for nine to 20 days in sub-zero temperatures, much of it in darkness and blinding winds? Sounds incredible? Well, that is what some people do every year in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.








The journey takes the mushers over mountains, through dense forests, and across frozen rivers and tundra. This year 83 mushers leave the starting gate, and for many of them their main goal is just to complete the race. The Iditarod is the ultimate test of humans and animals against nature.








Good Luck everyone as we wish the competitors a safe and exciting adventure in “The Last Great Race on Earth”









Happy Trails to you!


Ice

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