March 6, 2016

The REAL start day of the Iditarod. Still have time as its 4 hours behind NY.
In the meantime, I'll give you some more details:

Poor MARTIN BUSER he has pneumonia but will still run. He may take it slow in the beginning, quite the opposite of last year when he was in 1st for many days and then others started catching up with him.
Its warm in Willow which is not good for the dogs. It doesn't give them a chance to cool down and difficult to keep them hydrated.
MONICA ZAPPA is a musher and an environmentalist. She finds this a good venue for spreading the word about an important issue.
When the dogs are pups they are named. Usually there is a theme like KARIN HENDRICKSEN'S
dogs are named after her beloved Denver Broncos---Elway, Shanahan and McCaffrey. There was a newspaper article about Elway so Karin sent it to John Elway and he sent an autographed shirt signed
"to Elway from Elway"!!!
HUGH NEFF, the Mr Dr. Seuss, is running with the team he just won the Quest with. His lead dog is named after the Seinfeld character George Costanza.
Willow is set up with many food vendors and local art. I bought many Christmas presents there. Everyone is excited and spirits are high waiting for the start of the race. (me too)