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Anderson makes 8th run in Alaska’s ‘last great race’ |
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Tuesday, 04 March 2008 |
Cliff Buchan
News Editor
Wearing bid No. 9, Ken Anderson is hopeful his eighth run in 1150-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will yield a No. 1 finish.
Fresh from a second place finish in the 1000-mile Yukon Quest race in late February, Anderson is poised to make a strong bid in Alaska’s most famous race, often billed as “the last great race.”
The Iditarod had its ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday with the actual, for real race hitting the trail on Sunday. The top sled teams will cross the finish line in Nome in 12 days.
Will Anderson be among them?
Anderson, 35, a Forest Lake High School graduate, now makes his home and living in Alaska as a musher, kennel owner and summer tour guide. He has made seven previous runs in the Iditarod.
He nailed down a seventh place finish in 2007, taking home a prize purse of $44,400. His best finish was fifth in the 2003 race. The 2008 race has a total purse that will top $900,000.
Anderson nearly won the Yukon Quest on Feb. 23 and its $40,000 first place prize, but settled for second, 15 minutes off the pace of Lance Mackey.
Mackey is no stranger to Anderson. He won the 2007 Iditarod and was among the top five teams after the first three days of this year’s Iditarod race.
Anderson, who was in seventh place after the first two days of the race, slipped to 26th, according to the Iditarod web page early Tuesday morning. He was one of a number of the top teams that had stopped for rest.
According to Internet updates from Anderson’s wife, Gwen Holdman, Anderson took a five hour rest at Rainy Lake, the fourth checkpoint on the run, and left early Tuesday for Rohn.
Holdman reports that her husband is running within 10 minutes of his pre-race goals for this point in the journey.
Anderson’s parents, Betty and Henry Anderson of Forest Lake, have made two trips to Alaska in the past two weeks. They were in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, for the conclusion of the Yukon Quest on Feb. 23. They returned to Anchorage last weekend for the start of the Iditarod.
Anderson is one of 17 mushers among the field of 90 plus teams carrying a GPS tracking system.
For daily updates on the race, go to the official race web page: www.iditarod.com or follow Anderson’s race progress through daily updates written by Holdman on their kennel web page: www.windycreekkennel.com, and click on kennel updates.
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