Iditorad kickoff, downtown Anchorage

This past Saturday, Andrew and I went downtown to watch the kickoff of the Iditarod. As always, Andrew got some really great shots of the whole event.

We arrived downtown at around 10 a.m., the temperature reading from my car was 15 degrees. It was cooooold. It was probably the coldest I've ever been, but I'm sure I'll get to experience far worse in our next couple years up here.

Either way, we had fun watching all of the dog sleds take off on the beginning of their long, long trip. The Iditarod starts here and travels across the state, more than 1150 miles to Nome on the coast of the Bearing Sea. This year there are 97 teams competing to be first at the finish line. It takes most mushers 10 to 17 days to complete the trail.

The Iditarod is a huge deal up here in Anchorage. All of the hotels were full of people from across the country. I met one couple from California and another group from Utah. All of the major TV stations come out to cover it, even ESPN was here. Some teams have corporate sponsors, Target was promoting their team by passing out mittens (which I greatly appreciated, even put them on top of my gloves).

It doesn't happen very often that such a big event is going on in Anchorage. But, when they do, we'll be there and Andrew will have his camera.

Here are some pictures of the Iditarod kickoff ...