33rd Running of the Iditarod Starts Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the ceremonial start of the 2006 Iditarod. The actual race will start on Sunday.

We're going to "track" musher Lynda Plettner (56). This will be Ms. Plettner 12th race and this year she has two other mushers running her kennel's dogs. She says her unofficial title is, "the grandmother who has run The Last Great Race the most times".

We even have almost memorized the words to Hobo Jim's Iditarod Trail song (to hear the song, click on "Iditarod 2006" and then "Iditarod song"):

Hobo Jim’s: I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail

Away up in Alaska
The state that stands alone
There’s a dog race run from Anchorage into Nome
And it’s a grueling race with a lightning pace
Where chilly winds do wail.
Beneath the northern lights, across snow and ice
It’s called the Iditarod Trail.

Chorus:
Well, give me a team and a good lead dog and a sled that’s built so fine,
And let me race those miles to Nome, one thousand forty-nine
Then when I get back to my home
Hey I can tell my tale
I did, I did I did the Iditarod Trail.

Well the race it won’t be easy
For the masters of the trail
And some of them will make it and some of them will fail
But just to run that race takes a tough and hardy breed,
And a lot of work done by the dogs
that run across snow with whistling speed.

repeat chorus

I just pulled out of Safety
And I'm on the trail alone
I'm doin' fine and I'm pickin' up time
And headin' on in to Nome.
There's no sled tracks in front of me
And no one's on my tail
I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail!

repeat chorus