Starting Order for 2010 Iditarod

As mushers race down Anchorage’s 4th Avenue with a Iditarod fan in  their sled on Saturday afternoon, they’ll leave the downtown faux-starting line in the same order that they’ll head out on the trail in once the race really begins on Sunday afternoon.  Mushers, fans, and the media gathered last night at the Dena’ina Convention Center in Anchorage for the annual Musher’s Banquet where the starting order is drawn “out of a hat.”  Teams will leave in two-minute intervals from downtown Anchorage on Saturday morning and embark on a 10-mile course that winds through Alaska’s largest city and ends at a nearby airstrip. The race will then “re-start” about 70 miles north of Anchorage on Sunday afternoon in Willow, Alaska and from there mushers will take their teams into the woods and onto the trail.  Longtime Iditarod racer Linwood Feidler will be the first out of the gate wearing the #2 jersey, the #1 is always reserved for an honorary musher. There is a gap of over two hours between the first and the last musher to start the race, however all the times are equalized in the middle of the 1,000 mile journey as each team takes a 24-hour layover at the checkpoint of their choosing. It’s at the end of this longest layover in the race when Feidler will have to add on several additional hours before he leaves, meanwhile the last musher off the starting line #72 Judy Currier will leave after 24 hours even.  Even though a longer break in the middle of what could be a competitive race might be seen as a big disadvantage to leaving early, some mushers say a early starting number and being able to stay ahead of a large pack of teams from the beginning is a worthwhile trade-off.

2010 Iditarod Starting Order:

#1 Honorary Musher – Orin Seybert
#2 Linwood Fiedler
#3 Cim Smyth
#4 Wattie McDonald
#5 Zoya DeNure
#6 Jessie Royer
#7 Paul Gebhardt
#8 John Baker
#9 Ray Redington Jr.
#10 Justin Savidis

#11 Blake Freking
#12 Matt Hayashida
#13 Scott White
#14 Newton Marshall
#15 Jeff King
#16 William “Middie” Johnson
#17 Pat Moon
#18 Ross Adam, Grande Prairie
#19 Mitch Seavey
#20 Hans Gatt, Whitehorse
#21 Ramey Smyth
#22 Jane Faulkner
#23 Karin Hendrickson
#24 Art Church
#25 Ryan Redington
#26 Tamara Rose
#27 Warren Palfrey
#28 Quinn Iten
#29 Karen Ramstead
#30 Michael Suprenant
#31 DeeDee Jonrowe
#32 Robert Nelson
#33 Chris Adkins
#34 Kirk Barnum
#35 Sebastian Schnuelle
#36 Michelle Phillips
#37 Martin Buser
#38 Kristy Berington
#39 Cindy Gallea
#40 William Pinkham
#41 Dallas Seavey
#42 Sven Haltmann
#43 Jim Lanier
#44 Sonny Lindner
#45 Hank Debruin
#46 Kathleen Frederick
#47 Zack Steer
#48 Gerald Sousa
#49 Lance Mackey
#50 Aliy Zirkle
#51 Ken Anderson
#52 Dave DeCaro
#53 Emil Churchin
#54 Allen Moore
#55 Gerry Willomitzer
#56 Hugh Neff
#57 Rick Swenson
#58 Celeste Davis
#59 Michael Williams
#60 Trent Herbst
#61 Colleen Robertia
#62 Thomas Lesatz
#63 Lachlan Clarke
#64 Dan Kaduce
#65 Bruce Linton
#66 Sam Deltour
#67 Peter Kaiser
#68 Tom Thurston
#69 John Stewart
#70 Billy Snodgrass
#71 Jason Barron
#72 Judy Currier