Jamaican Dog Sled Team to Run Iditarod

The Jamaican Dog Sled team will be running the Iditarod.

Jamaican musher Newton Marshall took off yesterday and may do very well as he is running with some of the best dogs from three-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey's kennel. Marshall has been training with Mackey in Alaska in recent months.

In 2009, as a sled dog rookie, Marshall came in 13th out of a field of 29 mushers in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest. This man is not a one-run wonder.

Marshall started off with strays adopted from the Jamaican SPCA and ran his sled on wheels in Jamaica. In 2005, Jimmy Buffett heard about him and decided to sponsor his dog sled exploits. This year Lance Mackey supplied the dogs for his run, and some expert on-the-ground training as well.

Any question of who I am rooting for? And yes a movie has to be in the works!

But of course, the man to beat is Lance Mackey Himself, who is out to win his fourth straight Iditarod. As the Associated Press put it:

Both knees are shot, injected with synthetic cartilage until he can have surgery next summer. His right arm is still healing from a major operation to fix a staph infection. He continues to deal with other side effects of cancer.

But Lance Mackey is gunning for his fourth consecutive win in the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

In Alaska they make them tough as nails, one way or another.
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