The Honorary Musher this year is the Millenium Hotel’s Max Lowe. There’s a great article about Max learning of his selection at the Iditarod site. Quick excerpt:
“One year Chef Al and I packed up what we thought was everything and headed up the trail to Ruby. When we arrived I quickly noticed that we forgot [...]
Donna found the starting order list at ADN’s Sports section. Guess I was too tired and somehow just expected it to be on the front page…
Here are the first ten:
1. Max Lowe, Anchorage (Honorary Musher)
2. Cim Smyth, Big Lake
3. Jessie Royer, Fairbanks
4. Jim Lanier, Chugiak
5. Matt Hayashida, Willow
6. Lance Mackey, Fairbanks
7. Gerry Willomitzer, Canada
8. Bruce [...]
It was a looong evening at the Sullivan Arena, but it never got boring listening to the excitement and anticipation of musher after musher drawing their bib numbers out of a beautiful mukluk on stage. Most paused for a moment or two to thank family, friends, and sponsors. Some took full advantage of the alloted [...]
From the U.S. military’s daily newspaper, Stars and Stripes:
On Saturday, Whaley, 56, begins Alaska’s athletic claim to fame — the 1,159-mile Iditarod. But for the past five months the Army National Guardsman from Tennessee lived and trained in an isolated part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with his team of 16 sled [...]
From a Reuters article titled “Climate change, urban sprawl alter Iditarod race”:
“I always dreamed of running the race through Wasilla just because that’s where we live and we have a lot of fans,” said Ryan Redington, the 25-year-old grandson of race founder Joe Redington. “(But) right now, you can drive down any street and you’ll [...]
From an AP article at Fox Sports:
Mackey… is known for having superb dogs that seemingly can run forever, wagging their tails and barking at the finish line. He’s quick to praise them as the real stars, all capable of leading the pack, the reason for his victories. So what does he feed these running machines [...]
Just a note for those who might be just now joining our coverage with this race… We’re 110% Lance Mackey fans, and our coverage of the 2008 Iditarod will be reflecting that. Of course, we’re not going to ignore the other racers - Lance would be sorely disappointed in us if we did - but [...]
There’s a fascinating in-depth article about Lance in this morning’s Anchorage Daily News.
An interesting and controversial development in this year’s race is a new tracking device, explained in the article, “Iditarod to test oil field technology in tracking mushers,” in the International Herald Tribune, “the World’s Daily Newspaper,” published in France.
According to the Associated Press’ article, “Race buffs around the world will be able to follow online [...]
The ceremonial start is less than a week away, and Iditarod-related articles, essays, interviews, profiles, photos and more are appearing with increasing frequency. One of the more interesting efforts is a Special Advertising Section produced by the Anchorage Daily News. Featuring Bob Hallinen’s beautiful shot of a victorious Lance Mackey under Nome’s burled arch on [...]