The Big Show

It’s pretty safe to say that today is the biggest day of the year for Alaska. Yes, this is only a ceremonial start to the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and yes, there are other large events that happen in the 49th state but none of them come close to the Iditarod. Today’s kickoff is an event that draws crowds of life-long locals as well as visitors from across the globe and international media coverage. Entering this year’s race is a Jamaican musher sponsored by Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, a musher from Belgium, two Scotsmen, a former runway model, five returning champions, twenty-two rookies…and a partridge in a pear tree.

I’m always struck by the contrast by the events of today and where mushers will be just 48 hours from now. Thousands of people are packing the streets, excited to see their favorite team go down the chute and through Anchorage. For mushers this has been a week full of meetings, press briefings, interviews, banquets and send-off parties – all for their two week extreme camping trip race. All this hype is for “rock star campers”. Forty-Eight hours from now teams will be approaching some of the most dangerous parts of the Iditarod trail and crossing a major mountain range. No cheering fans, no champagne, no shower.

But it is all about the party today, the real race doesn’t start until tomorrow and luckily there will be a shower tonight. Alaska should be enjoying today as well, the international spotlight won’t be shinning this bright until next year -that is unless another governor decides to run for vice president.

iditablog programming note: Make sure you’re following our live updates from the starting line by subscribing to either the twitter feed or by adding us on facebook. We’ll have audio updates throughout the morning and will share our photos with you later on this evening. You can also hit “Race Webcams” in the navigation menu for all the Iditarod webcams we could find, including ones of downtown Anchorage!