Iditarod To Begin Today

The 40th running of the Iditarod, “The Last Great Race” is set to start today at 10am Alaska Time, 2pm Eastern, with the ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage. The actual race begins Sunday at 2pm AKT, 6pm ET, in Willow.

Things of note:

Brothers Ray Redington, Jr. and Ryan Redington, grandsons' of Joe Redington, the “Father of the Iditarod”, bookend the field, starting first and last, respectively.

Veteran Kristy Berington starts two positions in front of her twin sister, rookie Anna.

Dallas Seavey starts immediately in front of his father, Mitch. Mitch’s father, Dan, is starting 64th. Dan is the only musher running this year who also ran in the inaugural race in 1973. And the youngest of Mitch’s sons, Conway Seavey, the winner of the 2012 Junior Iditarod, will drive the first sled during the ceremonial start that carries this year’s honorary musher Dave Olson, who cleared trail for the 1973 and 1974 races.

66 mushers are entered. 49 male, 17 female. 51 veterans. 15 rookies, 9 male and 6 female. 52 teams are from Alaska, 7 from the lower 48 states, 4 from Canada and 3 are international – 2 from Norway and one New Zealand.

John Baker set the record for the fastest time to Nome last year, finishing in 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes and 39 seconds.
The record for the Northern Route (run in even years) was set by Martin Buser in 2002 at 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds.

This year the race runs the Northern Route, measured to be around 975 miles.


SUGGESTED LINKS:
Official Iditarod Sites
http://iditarod.com/
http://iditarod.com/race/current-standings/
http://www.iditarodforums.com/index.php
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Iditarod-Trail-Committee/112545578798091

Mushing Loon Pages
https://www.facebook.com/mushing.loon
http://mushingloon.blogspot.com/

Alaska News Outlets
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/
http://www.ktuu.com/sports/iditarod/
http://newsminer.com/pages/sports_iditarod
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/section/iditarod-2011

Blogs, Websites, Facebook
http://www.mushing.com/index.php
http://northernlightmedia.com/
http://gomush.com/
http://www.iditablog.com/
http://backstage-iditarod.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Husky-Productions/185581807454

On the Scene Reports
Joe Runyan http://www.facebook.com/jrunyan1989
Sebastian Schnuelle http://www.facebook.com/sebastianschnuelle

Contact me for many, many others.

2012 IDITAROD STARTING ORDER:
Bib Numbers (X)
Rookie {R}
(Bib #1 goes to the Honorary Musher)

1. Ray Redington Jr (2)
2. Jim Lanier (3)
3. William Pinkham (4)
4. Tom Thurston (5)
5. Jodi Bailey (6)
6. Wade Marrs (7)
7. Cim Smyth (8)
8. Nicolas Petit (9)
9. Jeff King (10)
10. John Baker (11)
11. Kelly Maixner (12)
12. Michael Suprenant (13)
13. Aliy Zirkle (14)
14. Pat Moon (15) {R}
15. Trent Herbst (16)
16. DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
17. Lance Mackey (18)
18. Travis Cooper (19) {R}
19. Kelley Griffin (20)
20. Ramey Smyth (21)
21. Mike Santos (22) {R}
22. Gerry Willomitzer (23)
23. Sigrid Ekran (24)
24. Paul Gebhardt (25)
25. Michelle Phillips (26)
26. Hugh Neff (27)
27. Peter Kaiser (28)
28. Jake Berkowitz (29)
29. Jaimee Kinzer (30) {R}
30. Kristy Berington (31)
31. Anjanette Steer (32) {R}
32. Anna Berington, (33) {R}
33. Dallas Seavey (34)
34. Mitch Seavey (35)
35. Bruce Linton (36)
36. Scott Janssen (37)
37. Justin Savidis (38)
38. Ken Anderson (39)
39. Jan Steves (40) {R}
40. Martin Buser (41)
41. Colleen Robertia (42)
42. Karin Hendrickson (43)
43. Aaron Burmeister (44)
44. Ed Stielstra (45)
45. Ryne Olson (46) {R}
46. Kirk Barnum (47)
47. Hank Debruin (48) {R}
48. Bob Chlupach (49)
49. Brent Sass (50) {R}
50. Michael Williams, Jr (51)
51. Matt Giblin (52)
52. Zoya DeNure (53)
53. Silvia Furtwängler (54) {R}
54. Josh Cadzow (55) {R}
55. Karen Ramstead (56)
56. Matt Failor (57) {R}
57. Gerald Sousa (58)
58. Sonny Lindner (59)
59. Rick Swenson (60)
60. Curt Perano (60) {R}
61. Rohn Buser (61)
62. Braxton Peterson (63) {R}
63. Art Church, Jr (64)
64. Dan Seavey (65)
65. Lachlan Clarke (66)
66. Ryan Redington (67)