I am just an hour away from loading up all the dogs and heading north to Anchorage for the start of this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  Paul is already ahead of me, having made the trip yesterday to take care of a few details.  He has mandatory pre-race meetings this morning, and by my staying behind, it affords the dogs one additional night of slumber in their own space here at the kennel.  The next couple of nights we will be hosted by our friend, Ken Stegman, who's Anchorage Hillside home becomes our "race central" until Paul is off on the trail Sunday afternoon.  One of the things that Paul took care of yesterday was to line up all of the staging gear for the team's arrival today.  When our kennel helper, Tyler, and I arrive later this morning, we will unload all the dogs from the dog truck and finish giving them fresh straw and food.  As the dogs that have raced before are familiar with this routine, it will hopefully go smoothly.

One of the other things Paul did yesterday was to ship his extra sleds out on the trail.  Race rules allow a musher to use up to three different sleds during the race.  Paul will start the race with sled that is slightly heavier in build.  Mid way he has the sled that he previously used as his "coastal/ finishing" sled, that is more lightweight.  When he reaches the Yukon River, his newly built lightweight sled awaits him.  He will run that sled through to Nome.  The reason he elected to use a heavier construction for the initial portion of the race was due to a couple of factors.  One is the trail its self.  The early part of the Iditarod trail winds through birch and spruce forest, over rolling terrain and most importantly, over the same trails that receive heavy usage by snowmachines.  Quite often the machines have a tendency to create some rough trail conditions, and Paul wants a sled that can handle this.  He also needed a sled that can handle the extra weight of the gear he will haul for camping along the trail.  The first few checkpoints are a mad house until the teams start to separate into the front runners - middle of the pack - and back of the pack groups.  Couple this with the media and spectators, and you have an environment that is full of energy and commotion, but not conducive to resting a team.  This is why you will probably not see Paul spending much rest time in the actual checkpoints over the first couple days of the race.  Instead, he will load up the straw and gear for the dogs and head out to camp alongside the trail where it is quieter.  If he had a lightweight sled, the added stress of the straw and dog food, could impact the integrity of the sled in the rough terrain. 

Paul is excited about his new sled.  He will pick it up in Anvik if all goes well.  It is one of the many worries I always have during the race - that his sleds will be in the actual checkpoints he shipped them to.  He has to go through a commercial airline carrier to get the sleds to rural hubs, where a local resident is then paid to haul them overland using a snowmachine and freight sled to the isolated villages.  You are trusting someone else to do their job entirely with something that can have tremendous ramifications to the outcome of the race.  When the sleds arrive, you then have to hope that no one messes with your gear.  One year, Paul had packed additional sled plastic and supplies in his sled, only to have other mushers take the gear and leave his sled stripped down.  For those of you that ask for those "specific things to pray for" - beyond a clean, tree-less run… this is something you could add to the list!

We have joked frequently about Paul having a "trail free of trees" this year.  But all jokes aside, he had an awesome team last year, and that one tree in the trail that broke the gangline quite likely shot any chance of winning Paul had out the window.  I can tell you that Paul has commented that the team he is driving this year "IS THE BEST EVER" according to him, and he has a super reinforced, cable filled, brand new gangline!  He is excited and the dogs show every indication of being at the perfect edge of peaking, both mentally and physically.  They are ready to race!

We will have the Iditarod pre-race mushers banquet this evening at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.  Paul signed up for the race in 18^th place last June, so he will be the 18^th musher to have the option to draw whichever starting position he desires out of those not selected by the 17 mushers ahead of him in the drawing.  Hypothetically he wouldn't start any lower than 18^th position.  He has joked about selecting the last starting position out - to which I told him we would probably end up on the front page of the newspaper…. As I would personally go up and kick him in the rear if he did so!!!!!

The Ceremonial Start is Saturday in Anchorage, and the actual race will get underway at the Re-start in Willow on Sunday starting at 2pm.  Contingent upon which position he selects, Paul will leave the starting line in the two minute interval adjusted time.  (if he drew #18, just multiply by two to derive how long after 2pm he will start).

I won't be back to do another update until Monday morning.  I will try to keep these as timely as possible. In the interim, you can keep track of the progress early on by visting http://www.iditarod.com/ and view the current updates.  Bear in mind, it really won't be until about day three to four until the front pack is more defined, so expect a lot of jockeying in standings the first few days.

Until Later…. Happy Trails - Evy