Iditarod mushers get festive send-off for Nome trek

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Seventy-one mushers and their powerful sled dog teams got a festive send-off in downtown Anchorage on Saturday for a 10-mile (16-km) ceremonial run that launched the fabled Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Cheering, well-bundled spectators lined the way as mushers made the untimed run from the snow-packed streets and over ski trails in Alaska's largest city.

Timed competition in the 1,150-mile (1,840 km) race to Nome starts on Sunday, when the official restart is staged from the small community of Willow, about 80 miles (130 km) north of Anchorage.

With the clock off on Saturday, mushers focussed on the festivities, socializing with tourists, fans and friends.

The more famous competitors, such as four-time champions Martin Buser and Jeff King and three-time champion Lance Mackey, signed autographs, passed out dog booties and other souvenirs and posed with fans for photographs.

Expect the "usual suspects," including past champions, to be contending for this year's title, said Mitch Seavey, winner of the 2004 race. "Some of the younger guys are going to be a factor," he added before hitching up his dogs.

Seavey said he hopes to be in contention himself. "My team is as good as I've ever had, maybe better. I assume that there's other guys saying the same thing, which is what makes this fun," he said.

"ROOTIN' FOR NEWTON"

Other mushers had more modest goals. First-time Iditarod competitor Wattie McDonald, from Stonehaven, Scotland, said he hoped to reach Nome in 12 days, "with a healthy team of dogs and, obviously, with me in one piece."

"Anything on top of that is a bonus," he added, before donning the green kilt he hoped would draw attention to his homeland. His dog handlers, mostly friends from Scotland, were also wearing kilts, and two of them braved the chilly Anchorage breeze with bare legs beneath their skirts.

A Scottish flag flew from his sled.

Another rookie musher drawing attention was Newton Marshall, the first Iditarod competitor from Jamaica. Fans, many wearing "Rootin' for Newton" buttons, and camera crews crowded around him at the downtown Anchorage start.

"I'm just feeling happy, as you see the smile on my face," Marshall told a local television team. "I just can't wait to get out on the route."

Though he has never before competed in the Iditarod, Marshall has solid credentials for the gruelling event. He ran last year's 1,000-mile (1,600-km) Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, finishing strong, and has trained with Mackey and Hans Gatt, who won this year's Yukon Quest in record time.

The Iditarod winner will collect a prize of $50,000 (33,000 pounds) and a new pickup truck. The winner is expected in Nome in mid-March; the race record is eight days, 22 hours and 46:02 minutes, set by Buser in 2002.

The Iditarod commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that delivered medicine by sled-dog relay to Nome to combat a diphtheria outbreak.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

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