Mushers chase victory on Iditarod trail
The 2010 Iditarod is officially under way, with 71 mushers and dog teams on the wide-open trail toward Nome.
Teams will spend the next week and a half crossing 1,049 miles through some of the most demanding and formidable conditions on Earth, including North America's largest mountain chain, the Alaska range.
"Ten days and nothing else but eat, sleep and feed dogs," Canadian musher Sebastian Schnuelle said excitedly.
The sport has been dominated in recent years by Lance Mackey, 39, of Fairbanks, Alaska, and this year he will be trying to accomplish what no musher in history has been able to do: win four consecutive Iditarods.
Mackey is a throat cancer survivor and is known for his fierce determination and competitive spirit.
He comes from family of Alaskan mushing champions. His father, Dick Mackey, and brother Rick have also won the Iditarod. Dick Mackey's one-second win over Rick Swenson in 1978 set a record for the closest finish in Iditarod history.
The Iditarod, though, isn't a competitive sprint to the finish for every musher in the field. Jim Lanier, 69, of Chugiak, Alaska, mushes primarily for enjoyment. He's entered and completed 13 Iditarods, at least one in all four decades the race has been in existence. He has never won.
Rookie Iditarod musher Kristy Berington admits that she's not racing to win; she just hopes to finish. Her longest race prior to entering this year's Iditarod was only 300 miles.
"I've got puppies on this team that I want to see get to Nome. It's like watching your kid graduate from college," said the 25-year-old Kasilof, Alaska, resident. "They go and they're puppies, and they come back and they're dogs."
She has been training with Iditarod veteran Paul Gebhardt and has borrowed one of his dog teams to lead her to Nome.
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