Few surprises at the beginning of the race

Rainy Pass is still pretty early to be developing race leaders, but the top 10 right now looks pretty believable. Ramey Smyth checked out at 2:46pm, that’s 3.5 hours ahead of Jessica Hendricks and Lance Mackey. Bjornar Andersen is going to start his race for the lead over the next few checkpoints, he technically is in 4th place, but he took a much longer rest than anyone else and should make up time quickly. Doug Swingley (currently #6) is also coming out of Rainy Pass with a very long rest.

Ramey Smyth is a musher who is addicted to the race. When I spoke with him in 2005, he expressed how much he needs to place high in order to pay the bills. At only 30, this will be Ramey’s 12th Iditarod, and in those 12 races he has finished in the top 10 four times, with 2004 being the closest he has come to winning first place. Last year was definitely an off year for Ramey as he placed almost the worst in his Iditarod career. Ramey also spoke about how important the dog’s safety is to him. Last year he had a rough training season with his team getting stomped by a moose, but going into the ‘05 race all he cared about was making sure his team stayed safe and healthy he knows that’s really the only way to come out ahead.