The Last Great Race (March 5-6, 2011)

We woke up at 4:45 AM on Saturday to head up to Anchorage for the 39th annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race, also known as the Last Great Race. It was a chilly morning for standing around, but the dogs were in gear, ready to go. There were many mushers from Alaska and other areas of the U.S. They also came from Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, Norway, and Jamaica. The city of Anchorage brings in tons of snow for the event, piling it on major downtown roadways. There is a northern and southern route. On odd years, the mushers take the southern route from Anchorage to Nome. In about a week and a half the first musher will mostly likely arrive in Nome.

For the past 9 days the city of Anchorage has been celebrating to Fur Rendevous, also known as the Rondy. The Iditarod always occurs during this celebration. There are many different activities for people to participate in and watch around downtown Anchorage. Jon and I decided to watch one of these events on Saturday evening. This was the Rondy Festivals 4th annual Running of the Reindeer. It is a spoof off of Spain's Running of the Bull. Many people sign up to participate in this evening every year and even more come to watch. A crowd of runners take off down the street. Moments later, reindeer are released. The reindeer are extremely fast, catching up with the runners very quickly. It is a very safe event, the reindeer don't hurt anyone, but instead weave between the runners. So, how do they get the reindeer to run? Well, it is currently breeding season. The male reindeer that run with the crowd are on one end while a female reindeer is on the other end. The males know she is down there and take off once released. By the way, reindeer are the same as caribou.

We spent the night in Anchorage where we had a beautiful view of the inlet and mountains. We also watched a helicopter taking people on tours come and go right outside our window. The skies were clear most of the day. We were even fortunate enough to see a full sundog at the start of the Iditarod race.