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Iditarod Start
The 29th Iditarod ceremonial race start began this
morning in downtown Anchorage. Sixty-nine mushers begin their trek to
Nome starting tomorrow from Willow, Alaska. Video
and still images will be posted later today...in the mean time, be sure
to sign up for the Iditarod
Finishline Contest! Entries will be accepted until 12:00 a.m. (Alaska)
March 5th, 2001. The winner will be announced on the KTVA (Channel 11)
6 o'clock news report. Stay tuned!
Iditarod
Headlines -
Check it out!
Keep up to speed on Iditarod stories from adn.com,
right here on pet-diet.com. Anchorage's largest newspaper has excellent
written articles, stories and updates of the Last Great Race®. Be
sure to come back to pet-diet.com for ongoing video/audio updates and behind
the scenes interviews!
The
Day Before
Watch a quick clip from 4th and D Street where
the RondyCam
is pointed. This video was shot March 2, 2001. QuickTime
- RealVideo
2001 Iditarod
Musher Starting Positions
Get the starting positions for the 2001 Iditarod
mushers. Start positions are announced at the Musher's Banquet. See
a list of the bib numbers (positions).
Iditarod History
An epidemic of the disease diphtheria loomed over the
small town of Nome, Alaska in 1925. A serum was needed to inoculate the
townspeople but it was in short supply. Bad weather in the area kept airplanes
from Fairbanks on the ground. The serum was instead rushed from Nenana
to Nome, about 675 miles, by dog teams. The medicine was relayed the distance
in just 127 1/2 hours.
The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is run to commemorate the
historic serum run. The race begins in Anchorage during the first weekend
in March. From the first 20 day run in 1973, the times have fallen to
under 10 days. After the first musher reaches the burl arch in Nome, mushers
continue to flow in both day and night for a week and a half.
At the end of the race, Nome becomes quite a center
of activity. Scheduled activities include a potluck dinner, several crafts
shows, the race awards ceremonies including an opportunity to meet the
mushers, and an Alaskan sized basketball tournament (over 50 teams attend
the competition). There is also the Ice Golf Classic and a darts tournament.
Visitors planning on attending the finish of the race should make advance
plans for accommodations, as last minute planning is usually not viable.
The Red Lantern
List of Read
Lantern Winners
In the early pioneering years of Alaska, dog teams were
used to carry freight and mail between the Anchorage, Seward and the interior.
Along the way, roadhouses were set up as rest stops and shelter. The mushers
made their way across the Alaska wilderness in all types of weather. To
help them, a kerosene lamp was hung outside each roadhouse as a beacon.
These lamps helped the mushers find the roadhouses, and served as a notice
that a musher was out somewhere on the trail. The lamp was left to burn
until the musher was safely at his intended destination.
In 1986, to address and continue the tradition, Chevron
USA hung a Red Lantern on the burl arch in Nome. The lantern is lit at
the beginning of the race every year, and it burns brightly until the
last musher crosses the finish line. The last musher across the finish
line puts out the lamp, officially signifying that the Iditarod Sled Dog
Race has come to a close. This practice has identified the last musher
in the race as the Red Lantern musher.
The Last Great Race
You can't compare it to any other competitive event
in the world! A race over 1049 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain
Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen
rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at
the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that the temperatures far below
zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards
of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills,
and you have the IDITAROD! A RACE EXTRAORDINAIRE, a race only possible
in Alaska.
From Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on
the western Bering Sea coast, each team of 12 to 18 dogs and their musher
cover over 1049 miles in two to three weeks.
Many people ask, "What does Iditarod mean?"
In Libby Riddles' book Race Across Alaska, she reports that the early
Athabascan Indians called their inland hunting ground Haiditarod, "the
distant place." Later when gold was discovered in the same area the
miners founded the town at the Indians hunting camp, which they spelled
Iditarod. In 1910 the Alaska Roads Commission brushed out and marked a
trail from Nome through Iditarod and on to Seward, the major seaport in
southcentral Alaska. Originally called the Seward Trail, it later became
known as the Iditarod Trail.
It has been called the "Last Great Race on Earth"
and has won worldwide acclaim and interest. German, Spanish, British,
Japanese and American film crews have covered the event. Journalists from
outdoor magazines, adventure magazines, newspapers and wire services flock
to Anchorage and Nome to record the excitement. It's not just a dog sled
race ... it's a race in which unique men and women compete. Mushers enter
from all walks of life... fishermen, lawyers, doctors, miners, artists,
etc. Men and women enter each with their own story, each with their own
reasons for going the distance. It's a race organized and run primarily
by volunteers ... thousands of volunteers ... men and women, students
and village residents. They man headquarters at Anchorage, Eagle River,
Fairbanks, Juneau, Nome and Wasilla. They fly in dog food and supplies.
They act as checkers, coordinators, veterinarians and family supporters
for each musher.
Copyright 2001 pet-diet.com - All Rights
Reserved.
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last updated:
3/10/01 8:35 PM
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