Nashoba, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race doesn't start until the first Saturday in March. This year the race begins on March 5th. The race also does not follow the 1925 Serum Run route completely. On even years the race trail picks up the serum run route at Ruby and covers the last 447 miles On odd years the race picks up the serum run route at Kaltag and covers the last 341 miles.\n\n
All forums / Real Life Happenings
Iditarod
Happy iditarod day!
Started by Nashoba on 02 Feb 2005, 20:58 UTC · 3 preserved posts
I know it doesn't completely follow the serum run trail, but I'll admit that I was copmletely unaware of the new date. 
Silly me.
It's easy to find information about dogsledding, but I can never find anything on the internet about the Iditarod, except for the original serum run. Where do you find out about the goings on? Any websites you could name would be very much appreciated!
Silly me.It's easy to find information about dogsledding, but I can never find anything on the internet about the Iditarod, except for the original serum run. Where do you find out about the goings on? Any websites you could name would be very much appreciated!
I am not entirely sure but I think that the Iditarod has always started on the first Saturday in March.
Some really good Iditarod links are as follows:
Official Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race website.
Cabela's Iditarod - One of the major sponsors of the Iditarod. This site has excellent race coverage. The main writer is a musher whom has finished 4th in the Iditarod.
I have been an avid fan of the Iditarod for about a year now. I first heard of the Iditarod in the winter of 1993. I followed the Iditarod that year as part of an assignment for school. Granted, in those days I only had a newspaper to get information from. I didn't even have a computer yet, let alone Internet service. This is why I forgot about the Iditarod until the summer of 2003.
I followed the 2004 race very carefully. Since I now had a broadband Internet service at home and at school/work, I could get the latest reports instead of a small and outdated AP wire report in the morning newspaper. That newspaper did a terrible job reporting the Iditarod despite the fact that 4 Michiganders were in the Iditarod (mostly because none of them were in the top 20). I followed all the Michiganders and was more interested in them than I was in the top 10.
The Iditarod is dominated by Alaskan Huskies. The Alaskan Husky is a type of dog rather than a breed. They are not recognized by any major kennel club (AKC, CKC, etc). They are bred for performance and not for exterior appearance (as is the case with purebred show/pet line dogs). Thus, they do not always look like the stereotypical sled dog.
Purebred sled dogs will never win the Iditarod since they have standards that were set in the first half of the 20th century. Usually there are 1-4 Siberian Husky teams every year. This year there is just one team. Karen Ramstead is driving that team. She is chasing the record time for a full Siberian Husky team of 12 days, 0 hours, and 8 minutes. These days, the Iditarod winner finishes in 9 days.
Some really good Iditarod links are as follows:
Official Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race website.
Cabela's Iditarod - One of the major sponsors of the Iditarod. This site has excellent race coverage. The main writer is a musher whom has finished 4th in the Iditarod.
I have been an avid fan of the Iditarod for about a year now. I first heard of the Iditarod in the winter of 1993. I followed the Iditarod that year as part of an assignment for school. Granted, in those days I only had a newspaper to get information from. I didn't even have a computer yet, let alone Internet service. This is why I forgot about the Iditarod until the summer of 2003.
I followed the 2004 race very carefully. Since I now had a broadband Internet service at home and at school/work, I could get the latest reports instead of a small and outdated AP wire report in the morning newspaper. That newspaper did a terrible job reporting the Iditarod despite the fact that 4 Michiganders were in the Iditarod (mostly because none of them were in the top 20). I followed all the Michiganders and was more interested in them than I was in the top 10.
The Iditarod is dominated by Alaskan Huskies. The Alaskan Husky is a type of dog rather than a breed. They are not recognized by any major kennel club (AKC, CKC, etc). They are bred for performance and not for exterior appearance (as is the case with purebred show/pet line dogs). Thus, they do not always look like the stereotypical sled dog.
Purebred sled dogs will never win the Iditarod since they have standards that were set in the first half of the 20th century. Usually there are 1-4 Siberian Husky teams every year. This year there is just one team. Karen Ramstead is driving that team. She is chasing the record time for a full Siberian Husky team of 12 days, 0 hours, and 8 minutes. These days, the Iditarod winner finishes in 9 days.