The Last Great Race on Earth gets underway on Saturday with the ceremonial start in Anchorage, when mushers and their auction-winning Idita-Riders will follow a course through the streets, parks, and backwoods of Anchorage, ending at Campbell Airstrip. On Sunday the real deal gets underway in Willow as 71 teams head out onto the Iditarod Trail toward Nome, 1,000 miles away. The 2010 Iditarod Restart will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 7, on Willow Lake. In an effort to accommodate as many race fans 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 south from Talkeetna.

Mush, mon!

This year's Iditarod lineup includes 46 teams from Alaska, 13 from other states, eight teams from Canada, two from Scotland, and one each from Belgium and Jamaica. The lad from the southern climes is Newton "Yah, mon!" Marshall, the perennially-smiling, uber-enthusiastic musher running a team of three-time champion Lance Mackey's dogs, with the ultimate Super-Dog, Larry, in his team. Newton is an Iditarod rookie, but no stranger to mushing; besides impressive finishes in the tough Percy Dewolfe and Copper Basin 300 last year, he finished the Yukon Quest in 13th place and was the recipient of the Yukon Quest Challenge of the North Award.

Iditarod vet check

The Iditarod veterinarians offer free checkups of Iditarod teams every year at race headquarters in Wasilla, and it's become a popular event for fans seeking a way to meet the mushers and view the dogs up close and personal. With warm temperatures and sunny skies, this year's vet check was a wonderful place to spend a few hours on Wednesday, and a great way to kick off the adventures of Iditarod 2010.

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The dogs

Iditarod fan Marcia Claesson of Nebraska is an artist and poet, and writes:

Every year I get inspired to write Iditarod poems. Here's my latest (a parody on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells"):

The Dogs
See the start gate with the dogs,
Eager dogs,
With the fans decked out in parkas from their Lands End catalogs.
See the waiting sled dogs jump
And their wagging tails thump
On the icy Willow Lake.
You can tell they're really pumped,
As their harnesses they shake.
How they tug, tug, tug,
While the musher gives a hug
To each friend and family member
With advice and dialogs.
Oh the dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs,
Dogs, dogs, dogs,
Oh, the barking and the yipping of the dogs.

This is only the first quarter of Marcia's tribute to The Dogs...

Champ's last race?

Last weekend Jeff King raced through the streets of Anchorage on a sprint sled as a rookie in the Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship Sled Dog Race. Coming into fourth place with a team of Blayne "Buddy" Streeper's dogs, King commented after the race, "I think I'm done with the Iditarod after this year, at least as a participant. Maybe I'll come to them looking for a job."