Anyone's guess

WILLOW — The 36th running of the Iditarod got under way Sunday on Willow Lake, with 95 teams heading up the trail for Nome.

Who’ll get there first is anyone’s guess.

“Me,” said Trapper Creek’s Matt Calore as he waited in the holding area before the race start.

Calore was only half-joking, saying his main goal is to improve on last year’s 46th-place finish.

“Realistically, two days faster,” he said of his goal.

Last year Calore took just more than 13 days to complete the race.

Fairbanks musher Lance Mackey won last year’s Iditarod in nine days, five hours and eight minutes, two hours and 20 minutes in front of Paul Gebhardt.

That win catapulted Mackey into instant front-runner status for this year’s race, but he said he’s not so sure.

“I keep hearing I am (the favorite),” he said. “Kind of hard to believe, isn’t it?”

Mackey said his team is strong this year, but noted there’s plenty of other good teams in the race.

“I think everybody in this race is a favorite for somebody,” he said.

Another musher who saw his stock rise significantly last year was Sheep Mountain’s Zack Steer, who placed a career-best third. Although that race may have raised some eyebrows, Steer said he has always thought he had the dogs to contend for a title.

“I’ve always considered myself among the front-runners, it’s just been the other 99 percent of mushing fans that don’t think so,” he said.

Steer said there’s a number of teams that have the ability to win the race this year.

“We’re one of the 20 teams that can be competitive this year,” he said.

As for a prediction, Steer said he thinks Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, musher Hans Gatt could surprise some people.

“He’s due,” Steer said.

Mushers like Steer, Mackey and former race champions like Martin Buser, Jeff King and Mitch Seavey are always competitive, but Wasilla’s Wayne Curtis said he has a hunch a young gun could step up and make some noise this year.

“I wouldn’t put something past Rohn Buser,” Curtis said. “I think daddy would like him to do really well.”

Though Rohn Buser is just an 18-year-old rookie, Curtis said Martin Buser’s youngest son could have a team worth watching.

“If I had a couple extra bucks and I was a betting man, I’d put my money on him,” Curtis said.

Hanging out at his family’s traditional pre-race barbecue, Rohn Buser wasn’t saying much about Curtis’ bold prediction.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see.”

Buser’s father, a four-time champion, said any talk of who’s going to win is simply speculation.

“We call that March talk,” he said. “We don’t pay attention to anybody that says anything in March.”

In fact, when pressed, Buser said he would have to consider himself the favorite, not only among his family, but among the field as a whole.

“It’ll be me and I don’t know who’s going to be behind me,” he said.

Most mushers who ventured a guess as to a race favorite pointed out that Day 1 of the race is simply way too early to try and pick a winner. Most said the best they’re hoping for is to have fresh dogs, keep to a schedule and see where things are later in the race.

Steer said the idea is to bring a team to the race that’s in prime shape and ready to go the distance. Like in other sports, mushers train their dogs to be in peak condition come race time by tapering off their runs in the weeks that precede the Iditarod.

“You can’t train for a marathon by running 26 miles every day,” he said.

Steer, a former college swimmer, said he uses his athletic background to try and formulate a schedule that will have is dogs running fast the first week in March. Who wins the race, he said, will largely depend on which team is on its game when the race rolls around.

“Hopefully they peak at the right time, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com