Anonymity might be a problem though. Butcher and Jonrowe are synonymous with sled dog mushing, specifically the world-famous 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Both have pocketed thousands of dollars from successful Iditarod finishes and have been featured in separate television commercials.

They are familiar faces most people would recognize on the street without a dog team in front of them.

But Butcher and Jonrowe will be the first to point out that their success in past Iditarods won't help them on the sprint scene. Racing dogs in the Iditarod, which can take front-runners up to nine days to finish, is completely different than the Rondy Women's World Championship, a three-day sprint race that only lasts a bit more than a half-hour each day at Tozier Track.

"A lot of these people have been running in sprints as long as I've run in Iditarods," said Butcher, who finished Friday's 12.4-mile heat nearly three minutes behind leader Kathy Frost. "I still maintain more of an Iditarod kennel than a sprint kennel, so it's different."

Jonrowe agreed.

"This is a whole new game for me," Jonrowe said. "I'm used to racing for days."

If only somehow the Women's World Championship could be stretched out a couple hundred miles, Butcher and Jonrowe would be more comfortable. Coincidentally, the two finished just one second apart Friday.

"How about that?" said Jonrowe. "That hasn't gone unnoticed either."

Four-time defending champion Frost probably wouldn't like race organizers to change the length of the race. Frost, the reigning queen of sprint mushing with seven world titles, grabbed the first-day lead in 39 minutes, 15 seconds.

Frost was one of two mushers to break 40 minutes. Canadian musher Tammy Saunderson was the other, finishing in 39:31. The second of three 12.4-mile heats begins today at 2 p.m.

"I was hoping to be in the top five," Saunderson said. "I'm just tickled. It was a pretty good run."

Friday's heat also went well for Butcher, who made the trek here from her Eureka home to compete in her first official sprint race. Subzero temperatures have prevented Interior mushers from running their dogs, so that's part of the reason Butcher entered this weekend.

Butcher, 44, a four-time Iditarod champion, hasn't raced in a major Alaska sled dog race since her last Iditarod in 1994. She's kept busy raising her 3-year-old daughter, Tekla, building a new home in Fairbanks and competing twice in the middle-distance International Stage Stop in Wyoming.

Sprint races are all new to her.

"This is quite a bit different," said Butcher, who hopes to race in another Iditarod in the future. "It's just all-out speed. My dogs have good endurance, good speed, but not top-end speed.

"So I really don't have the dogs (to win)."

Jonrowe, of Willow, is racing this weekend for several reasons. And winning isn't necessarily one of them. She is competing because she loves racing dogs and neighbor Bill Kornmuller asked Jonrowe to race his dogs to keep them fresh.

"It seemed like it would be fun," said Jonrowe, an Iditarod veteran who finished second in that race last year.

Perhaps the biggest reason Jonrowe entered, though, was so she could return to the race where she made her mushing debut two decades ago. It was in the 1979 Women's World Championships that Jonrowe raced dogs for the first time, an experience she'll never forget.

"It was a disaster," she said. "I didn't even end up finishing. In fact, the team bolted out to Tudor Road and I got drug down on the asphalt. I was the rookiest of all rookies."

Published: 2/13/99