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Sign-up: Being First

Lori Townsend

by June Price

06/23/2005

Lori Townsend, of Willow, AK, will be the first musher to sign up for Iditarod 2006. Lori won this right by arriving in Wasilla and camping out in the parking lot of Iditarod Headquarters earlier this week.

"My goal was to beat GB Jones," she joked. Jones had been the first to arrive for three years running.

The mushers sign up in the order they arrive and officially sign-in. There’s a new twist to sign-up this year, however. This year, rather than draw numbers, the mushers will pick their own starting numbers in turn, depending upon when they signed up. Obviously, the earlier they arrive, the more chance they’ll have of getting that favorite number or one with meaning to them. No one’s sure how this will impact arrival times, of course, but you may see a mass of dog trucks arriving early to the picnic or perhaps even the night before. Part of the fun, some fans note, is in the guessing.

Since most mushers aren’t saying "what number they’ll pick," this should allow for lots of guessing. It will add a bit of intrigue to the musher banquet, where choices will be announced. Lori will, of course, be able to pick her number from all those available.

Ironically, only a few years ago, Lori and husband Rick Townsend thought they were out of dogs. After ten years in dogs, they had sold out completely. They remained out for five years, but have been back and active for the last three years. If their names sound familiar to you, by the way, check the credits of the National Geographic production, "Expeditions to the Edge: Iditarod Blizzard"

No rookie, having run the Iditarod in 1996 and 1997, when she was forced to scratch, Lori comes to the race with some impressive credentials.

"I won Rookie of the Year in the 1995 Kusko," she said, when asked about her racing achievements. Like many, she’s reluctant to be viewed as bragging but did take a certain amount of pride in the fact that she "broke Susan Butcher’s record in the Norton Sound 200." She finished 40th in her first Iditarod.

Lori will be taking a team of relatively young dogs to Nome.

"I’ll be running mostly two year olds," she says, noting that these are dogs they’ve bred themselves, dogs that come largely from Swingley lines. "There will also be some 4-5 year old dogs in there, too."

"We don’t have a large kennel, only 40 dogs, 29 of which are race ready."

Will she be running any other races?

Probably not.

"One of the advantages of not being a rookie," she points out, "is to be able to focus solely on the Iditarod."