Seavey, the 2004 champion, made the 30-mile run from Finger Lake in three hours, 22 minutes, arriving at 11:10 a.m. A pack of 25 mushers out of Finger Lake is expected to follow him into the checkpoint high in the Alaska Range shortly.

The checkpoint is actually on Puntilla Lake. From there, the trail climbs another 1,300 feet through Rainy Pass, topping out at 3,160 feet, before making the steepest descent of the race through the Happy River Valley and down the Dalzell Gorge until mushers reach the Tatina River. The next checkpoint is an abandoned cabin at Rohn, a 48-mile trip.

Chugak's Jim Lanier, a 67-year-old who frequently starts fast, was the second musher into Rainy, 34 minutes behind Seavey.

And while the top mushers are moving well, the pace is not extraordinary. Last year, Cim Smyth of Big Lake was the first to Rainy Pass, arriving more than an hour earlier than Seavey did this year. By race end in Nome, Smyth was 11th. This year he was running ninth, among the large pack of mushers between Finger Lake and Rainy Pass. His brother Ramey Smyth was also in that group.

Four-time Yukon Quest finisher Gerry Willomitzer of Whitehorse led the pack of frontrunners out of Finger Lake at 6:04 a.m. this morning. Willomitzer, who finished 30th in his rookie Iditarod race last year, has been moving among the leaders early this year. His best finish at the Quest was third place in last year's race.

The man who beat him in that Quest, defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey, followed Willomitzer out of Finger Lake 52 minutes later.

"People might expect me to do well here," Mackey said Sunday as well-wishers flocked around him on frozen Willow Lake just before the clock started ticking on the run to Nome. "As far at that goes, there is nobody putting pressure on me except for me."

At the back of the pack, 12 mushers were still in Skwentna, a full 75 miles back down the trail behind Seavey. Kim Franklin, the rookie from England, was bringing up the rear. Rachael Scdoris and her traveling partner Joe Runyan, who left the Willow start line last on Sunday, had passed three teams into Skwentna.

Mushers are chasing after a $875,000 purse to be paid out among the top 30 finishers