Melissa Owens' team races out of the chute during the official Iditarod Race in Willow, Alaska March 8, 2009. (Photo: Nathaniel Wilder/Reuters)

Ready, Set, Mush!

Mushers and dog teams race across Alaska in 2009 Iditarod

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There are no roads to guide them. Temperatures are below freezing, and more snow is on the ground than most people who aren't natives of Alaska have ever seen. But the competitors are trained and ready to make the grueling 1,100-mile trek through the northern wilderness. This endeavor is known as the Iditarod.

The 37th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race began on Sunday. Sixty-seven teams took off from Willow, Alaska, with the goal of completing the journey to the finish line in Nome.

A musher (a person who travels with dogs over a trail) leads each team of 12 to 16 dogs. Winning teams typically cover the distance to Nome in about nine days. But there is heavy snow covering the middle part of the trail right now, and that can slow even the most-experienced sledding teams.

"I don't think we're going to set any speed records, that's for sure," two-time champion Lance Mackey told Reuters News Service. "[The snow] puts everybody on a pretty level playing field."

Mackey won the Iditarod in 2007 and 2008. He is one of the favorites to win this year too.

At the last checkpoint report, Mackey was in third place behind Paul Gebhardt and Sebastian Schnuelle. The lead in Iditarod races usually changes hands many times, so it's too early to call a likely winner.

But the leaders don't have as much competition for the big prize in Nome as they did in years past. Twenty-nine more teams mushed through the Iditarod in 2008 than are racing this year.

Tough economic times are the biggest reason for the drop in participants. The entrance fee is $4,000, Many mushers don't have the extra funds needed to enter the race and buy supplies for themselves or their teams.

Time away from work is another factor. Most mushers have to take time off from their regular jobs to train for the big race. But taking extended time off from work is harder to do these days. Many companies have let some employees go, and the remaining workers are expected to do more work.

For those who have the time and money to participate in the Iditarod, there is a nice prize at the end of the trail: $69,000 and a new truck. But the Iditarod isn't just about winning prizes. The race also commemorates a historic, lifesaving medicine relay.

In 1925, a diphtheria epidemic broke out in Nome. Several residents died, and dozens more became ill. Curtis Welch was the only doctor in this remote coastal town. When the illness broke out, he did not have any medicine to fight the disease.
 
Welch quarantined the entire city of Nome. No one was allowed in or out of the city. Unless he could find a way to get medicine, or serum, to Nome, hundreds of people would die.

A team of 20 mushers and more than 100 sled dogs set up a 674-mile relay across Alaska. In only five and half days, through one of the most brutal storms of the century, they managed to get the needed medicine to Nome.

While this year's teams aren't racing for a cure, they will need the same amount of strength and determination to complete the 1,100-mile journey. Stay tuned to Scholastic News Online to find out who wins the 2009 Iditarod. In the meantime, you can explore the Iditarod trail and learn about past Iditarods in this special report.

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