Our first Iditarod was great. They had to truck in snow for the ceremonial start in Anchorage and it was a rough weather year for the mushers. All of the teams make a ceremonial 15 mile ride from Anchorage to Eagle River before starting the following day for real out in Willow.
The starting line from downtown Anchorage.
Joni found a well behaved dog team waiting patiently for its turn to run. It turns out they were just tied to the bumper of a pick-up truck. I swear they could have just pulled the truck down the icy street if they really wanted to. Some of the sleds were really cool.
We went out to Willow on Sunday to watch the official start. The mushers were all decked out in full gear and had their sleds loaded to the brim for the 1000 mile journey. It was a very close race this year with the first 2 dog teams crossing the finish line in Nome about 30 minutes apart. Mitch Seavey won the race this year, his son Dallas won it last year as the youngest musher ever to win. Mitch was the oldest musher to ever win. Aliy Zirkle was runner-up for the second straight year.
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