Iditarod: My votes.

Okay - gotta introduce you before they get too far along the trail. And I don't have pictures. Sorry. You'll have to look them up. It's really early yet to tell anything by current standings, but I'll include them anyway. So, here are my votes, in order, for who I want to win:

1) Sebastian Schnuelle (currently in 2nd) - I referred to him last year as "the hair." Still appropriate. Love him. His hair is fabulous and he received a humanitarian award this year for the way he treats his dogs. He really loves those dogs. He should win it.

2) Dallas Seavey (currently in 9th)- Nice young man. His dad is also in the race (currently in 6th). So Dallas won the Yukon Quest this year (the other big dogsledding race). It was apparently the worst race in history. Experienced racers had to drop out because of frostbite. The trail was completely wiped out in places. People fell through ice, etc. So he won it. And now I want him to win both in one year. And he just became a father in July, he's been training for the sleep deprivation on the trail (literally taking 50 sleep-deprivation camp outs to prep his body), and his wife is also an Iditarod veteran. He's a good second.

3) Martin Buser (currently in 1st) - He has won the Iditarod 4 times and is looking to make a record breaking 5th win.

Other players:

Lance Mackey (currently in 2nd) - A local celebrity. He's won the past 4 in a row. He's tied with Martin Buser for the most amount of wins. He's trying to break the record too. But I think he's too full of himself. And I'm sick of him winning. So that's that.

Newton Marshall (currently in 28th) - Our token Jamaican. I'm surprised he came back this year to race to be honest. He looked pretty cold and miserable last year, but seemed pretty fired up at this start this year. Tough kid.

I'll keep ya posted. Current standings can be found here.