Iditarod Sled Dog Race Kicked Off

Hundreds of sled dogs and thousands of fans lined up along Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue for the ceremonial start of the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Around 70 teams are participating in the event. The dogs leaped and barked when it was their turn to leave the downtown chute for an 11-mile run across Alaska’s largest city. Mushers ran with 12 dogs instead of the 16-dog teams they’ll use when the actual competition starts Sunday in Willow, about 50 miles to the north. Seventy-one teams are entered in the trek to Nome, an old gold rush town on Alaska’s western coast. More than a third of the mushers are from seven other countries and nine other states. “I won’t be disappointed if I come in third or 23rd, as long as my team looks happy and healthy doing it,” he said. “If I get to Nome and I question ‘Well, what if I had done this, or what if I had done that,’ then I’d be disappointed.”