It was snowy, it was fun, it was a little bit crazy. Must be Iditarod Ceremonial Start day!
Always a fun day, this year was no different. There were around 800 dogs, 67 mushers and thousands of enthusiastic fans. Here’s a few pictures of the Red Team’s run.
Photos by Barbara Swenson, Lynn Watanabe and Moira
Tomorrow is the Ceremonial Start of the 2018 Iditarod!
From 10am, 67 teams will mush 11 miles through the streets and trails of Anchorage with tens of thousands of supporters cheering, waving and hi-fiving. It is always a fun day!
I sat down with Aliy this evening and asked her why she enjoys the Ceremonial Start so much.
The team for the Ceremonial start can be made up of any 12 of the dogs that have passed all the pre-race vet checks. They do not have to go on to run in the race on Sunday and you will find many teams, including us, brought a “spare” or two, in case someone pulls up sore from the run on Saturday.
Allen and the Black Team will be the first of our teams out of the chute wearing bib #26. They leave the line at 10:50am. Allen will lead out with Daisy and Chena, Amber and Tinder will be in swing, followed by Barista and Sanka, Schmoe and Willie, Ginger and McCaw, with Bean and Bruno in wheel.
Aliy and the Red Team start just ten minutes later. She will lead out with Kodiak and Chipper, Commando and Dutch, Five and Rodney, Nomex and Driver, Scooby and Cayenne with Champ and Violet in wheel.
Find out more about our athletes on our Dogs Page.
There is a live feed of the Ceremonial Start on the Insider and streaming on Iditarod sponsor channel KTVA.
Final race team rosters will be posted either late Saturday or early Sunday morning, as soon as they are confirmed. Watch this space…
Matson Navigation Company of Alaska, LLC (and formerly Horizon Lines) have been sponsoring Aliy and Allen personally for more than ten years and are a valued part of our sponsor family. Each year we enjoy a dinner with the Management Team during the week then on Friday morning we take the crew and a few dogs into the offices at the Port of Anchorage.
This year we took Junior, Dutch and Kodiak to the office. Just before these dogs were born, Aliy and Allen travelled to Dutch Harbor on the (then Horizon Lines’ ship) Kodiak and that is where the boys got their names so it seemed fitting they visit.
Matson is also a major sponsor of the Iditarod race so we thank them, not only on behalf of our kennel but for supporting the race too!
The Iditarod tried something new this year with a Meet and Greet prior to the banquet in the Dena’ina Centre in Anchorage this evening. This proved to be a huge success with thousands of fans and supporters getting a chance to get posters signed, selfies taken and hands shook. It was a good chance for fans to meet their favourite mushers without feeling like they were interrupting their dinner or talking over the events of the evening.
The party then moved downstairs into the main function room for the Mushers’ Banquet and Bib Draw.
It was an entertaining evening that started off with the invocation from Mike Williams Senior who asked the spirits to bless the race. We got got to see some great auction prizes won, witness special dedications to Honorary Musher Joee Reddington and the first winner of the Iditarod, Dick Wilmarth and his dog Hotfoot, and eat a delicious meal. Of course, the best part is hearing from the mushers as they draw their bibs for the race.
It was a real celebration of the Iditarod, the dogs, the mushers and the supporters.
Every table was decorated with a hand-made centre piece by students from from Eastern Elementary, Ohio, Ferry Farm Elementary, Virginia, Gilman School, Maryland, Holy Cross, Delaware, Mason Intermediate Elementary, Ohio, Newport Middle Schoo, Pennsylvania, Northern Lights Christian Academy, Wisconsin, Togiak School, Alaska and Viroqa Middle School in Wisconsin.
BTW: Allen drew bib #26 and Aliy #31. A wee bit of a handlers nightmare but we will make it work!
The countdown is on for the 2018 Iditarod and we can’t wait to get started!
We are into the final preparation time and all that’s left is one final stretch-out run for the dogs, packing for the humans and then getting everyone down to Anchorage.
Wednesday morning, Aliy and Allen take their dogs on a final run before the race. This is one of the most nerve-wracking moments all season as it is so tempting to wrap them all up in cotton-wool between the Quest and the Iditarod. Of course, that is not possible as they would go completely stir crazy and we have to keep them moving, but this last run is a really important final step.
Aliy, Allen and Moira then travel to Anchorage ready for a sponsor event on Wednesday evening
The dogs travel down on Thursday with the handler crew and will be in town in time for the banquet on Thursday evening, meanwhile Aliy and Allen have musher meetings much of that day.
The only “Meet and Greet” Aliy and Allen will be doing is the Iditarod organised function prior to the banquet at 4pm on Thursday afternoon in the Dena’ina Centre. You can find out more about it on the Iditarod Website.
Friday is designated as a quiet day for us. We have a couple of short sponsor functions but other than that, it is time for the crew to spend time together doing final preparations and dog care before getting our teams out onto the trail. We purposely have not scheduled many public events for that day.
Saturday morning is the Ceremonial Start – this is the fun celebration of our dogs, the trail and the race. Teams will mush for 11 miles through central Anchorage and there are several great vantage points for spectators – if you are in town we would love to see you there! Give us a wave and a cheer! For those of you not there the Iditarod Insider will be live streaming from the start so you can follow along with the festivities on 4th Avenue.
Sunday at 2pm is the culmination of the whole season. We set our teams off from Willow Lake on their 1000 mile adventure across Alaska. We don’t seeing them again until they cross the line in Nome. Sunday is serious time!
Coverage Guide
Unlike the Yukon Quest, where we can get to most of the checkpoints to bring you photos, video and stories, none of the checkpoints for the Iditarod are on the road system. You have to either take a dog team, fly or ride a snow machine and I won’t be doing any of those things.
The best way to follow the race is to get an Iditarod Insider subscription. The Ultimate pack gets you the GPS tracker and access to all the video the team records along the way. I understand not everyone is in a position to get this and we will be doing at daily posts on the blog, updating you with what we know.
On Saturday and Sunday, and from the finish line in Nome (cell coverage dependent) I will be posting directly to our Instagram and Facebook pages, and maybe even Twitter. I will do an end-of-day post on the blog with pics and video from the Ceremonial Start and Willow Restart.
There will be loads of local news media covering the event and I will try to link relevant stories when possible.
The Iditarod Website has a heap of interesting information about the trail, the history as well as the current race. There is an amazing education portal that is not just for kids! Check it out, in between refreshing the tracker.
Thanks for following along with us. GO TEAMS!
All dogs that start the Iditarod, either Ceremonial or Restart must undergo a number of tests and checks before being deemed fit to start.
Our team hopefuls had their blood draw and EKG the other day. This evening every dog was thoroughly checked by kennel friend and sponsor Dr Tamara Rose.
She looked at every dog individually with a hands-on physical; checking ears, eyes and teeth, stretching out all their limbs to check their range of motion and see if there were any harness or booties rubs or chicken legs (where hair has come off the backs of legs – we use leggings to try to avoid this). She also verified their required vaccinations and signed-off the team as ready to race.
The dogs will go on one final run on Wednesday and the final selection will be made then. We’ll let you know the Ceremonial Run roster on Saturday and the full race roster on Sunday.
Thursday afternoon, 37 SPK Iditarod hopefuls had their appointments with the Iditarod Vet Tech crew to have a blood sample taken and EKG completed prior to being designated fit to run. One step closer to race start!
The blood sample is sent away to a laboratory for a full blood panel and the EKG is seen by a specialist cardiologist in Anchorage to check for any heart abnormalities that could be cause for concern or may rule a dog out of running 1000 miles.
Every dog that runs in the Iditarod goes through this procedure every year.
I followed two dogs who had never been to “blood draw and EKG” day before: Decaf and QT. Neither had Iditarod microchips yet either. In this video I asked Tabitha and Sabrina about each of the procedures. Poor Decaf, it’s the hardest thing in the world to ask him to be still for the 30 seconds it takes to draw blood then the 10 seconds to do the EKG and 2 seconds for the chip. He did so well, then QT showed him how to really do it! Good girl QT.
Thanks to Tabitha Jones – Chugiak, AK, Laura Harrington – Eagle Point, OR, Katie Geray – Fargo, ND, Sabrina Volcke – Wheatland, WY, Sara Short – Harrisburg, OR. We appreciate the time you have all taken out of your lives to come up and volunteer your services for our dogs. Your passion for what you do really shines through and our dogs respond to your attention.
As their final step to “qualifying”, the dogs go through a thorough physical exam next week. More on that later.
Here is a short video from yesterday’s training run:
Aliy fibbed a little in the video. Dutch and Commando did finish the Yukon Quest in lead, but Kodiak and Commando started in lead. We can’t take that away from Kodiak!
