Iditarod 2011

image: CC-BY Frank Kovalchek

Tomorrow is the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the annual race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. The official start will come on Sunday. Before vacation, Mrs. Sawicki met with third, fourth, and fifth graders to show students the official web site for the Iditarod, to give them some background information and history about the race, and to have them choose a musher to follow. It's easy to get caught up in the race - it's full of sportsmanship, extreme weather, adverse conditions, long lonely distances between checkpoints, and lots and lots of dogs! During the ten or so days that the race traditionally runs, Mrs. Sawicki posts daily information about standings and locations on a central bulletin board in the main hallway of the school. Students can use the website to read about daily events, calculate distances, prizes, and monetary costs to the mushers, and watch interviews by mushers as they stop at checkpoints along the trail. If you'd like to keep up with the race at home, the official website is iditarod.com. It makes for great dinnertime conversation since so much happens over the course of 24 hours!

A sidenote: for the last four years, the Iditarod has been won by a Lance Mackey, a consumate musher and cancer survivor from Alaska. He's the man to beat this year - and that should make the 2011 Iditarod all the more interesting!

For the kids, here's the 2011 Iditarod's youngest musher, Cain Carter, talking about his hopes for the race.