Record field of competitors starts Iditarod race

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A record 96 mushers started the Iditarod race on Saturday, driving dog teams out of downtown Anchorage in the ceremonial launch of the world's most famous sled-dog competition.

The timed competition in the 1,100-mile (1,770-km) race to Nome will start on Sunday at Willow, a small community about 80 miles north of Anchorage.

Before the mushers left the starting line for the 10-mile

(16-km) trek through Anchorage, officials, race fans and Alaska political leaders paid tribute to Susan Butcher, the four-time winner who died of leukemia in 2006.

Gov. Sarah Palin signed a bill that proclaimed every first Saturday in March -- the day when the Iditarod starts -- to be "Susan Butcher Day."

With Saturday's events a noncompetitive formality, mushers felt free to mingle with spectators who lined the sidewalks behind the fenced-off starting area.

Lance Mackey, fresh from a fourth straight victory in the 1,000-mile (1,600-km) Yukon Quest International sled-dog race, said his status as defending Iditarod champion meant a lot more attention from autograph-seeking fans.

"I've signed everything from undergarments to foreheads and coats and everything in between. Bare skin, posters, napkins, bar tabs, on and on, whatever anybody can produce at that precise moment," he said.