The ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race at 10 am Saturday morning race featured five Iditarod champions including three-time Iditarod Champ Lance Mackey, five-time champion Rick Swenson, four-time champions Jeff King and Martin Buser, and Mitch Seavey, the 2004 champion. Twenty-eight of last year's top 30 teams have also returned. They'll be joined by 22 rookie mushers including eight from neighboring Canada, one (Sam Deltour) from Belgium, one (Newton Marshall) from Jamaica, and two (Wattie McDonald & Jonathan Stewart) from Scotland. Complete profiles of all the mushers and records of all the past races can be found at the Iditarod Web site.

Helen Hegener/Northern Light Media photos

While Rick Swenson is the musher holding the record for the most championships (five), Martin Buser currently holds the record for the fastest Iditarod by completing the race in 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds in 2002.  He is currently the musher with the most consecutive Iditarod finishes, 24 races completed in row from 1986 to 2009, with 26 total finishes.

In an interesting analysis titled "How Does The Race Keep Getting Faster?", Iditarod writer Bruce Lee writes,

"Dick Wilmarth won the first Iditarod in 1973 with a time of 20 days 0 hours and 49 minutes. In 1974 Emmitt Peters took the Iditarod into the world of faster racing with a time of 14 days, 14 hours and 43 minutes. Rick Swenson was the first to break the 12 day time with a winning run in 12 days 8 hours and 45 minutes. After that there was talk within the mushing community about whether or not the Iditarod could be run in 10 days. Martin Buser answered that question for us in 1992 with a winning time of 10 days 19 hours and 17 minutes. It is worth noting that since 1992 the Iditarod has always been won in ten days or less. Doug Swingley broke the nine day barrier. And in 2002 Martin Buser ran the fastest Iditarod ever with a winning time of 8 days 22 hours and 46 minutes.

"A thousand miles traveled by sled dogs in 20 days, down to 8 days and 22 hours. How is that possible and how was it done?" Find out at the Iditarod Web site's "Eye on the Trail" blog.

On Sunday the Iditarod restart will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Willow Lake. In an effort to accommodate as many race fans as possible and at the same time eliminate traffic congestion, the Iditarod Trail Committee is providing a shuttle bus service from a variety of pickup points in from Anchorage north to Willow, and from the Sunshine Station (near Talkeetna) south.

Kathleen Fredericks' "Shameless Huskies" team.