Fielder pulled in at 2:19 a.m., and minutes melted into hours before fast-improving Canadian Warren Palfrey joined him at the scenic vista at 5:24 a.m.

Palfrey, 35, of Quesnal, British Columbia, has been on a sharp upward trajectory since his rookie Iditarod in 2006 when he finished 60th. Two years later, he was among the finishers earning prize money at 26th. Last year, he was up to 19th.

To reach second place early in this Iditarod, Palfrey passed 25 mushers on the first 130 miles of trail in the 1,000-mile race to Nome.

Fielder, on the other hand, has simply stayed where he started -- first off the Willow start line Sunday afternoon.

Before last year's 23rd-place finish, Fiedler hadn't visited Nome's famed burled arch since 2003, when he was sixth. In the intervening years, he'd talked of retiring, knowing the rugged race exacted a toll on his aging body. Fiedler's left ankle, injured in a car accident, it still pains him despite two surgeries. And Fiedler rides a sled that allows him to sit rather than stand on the runners.

"I get tired more quickly," he said before last year's race. "I have to play a smarter game now.

"I've been out of the loop a while, and I just love the sport so much -- love being out there with the dogs. As expensive as it is, I guess it's the equivalent cost of psychotherapy."

When he was in the loop, Fiedler put up a fine record -- even though he's seldom mentioned as a contender. In his 15 Iditarod finishes, he's never been out of the top 26. Four times he's been among the top 10.

"There certainly have been highs and lows," he said. "It can humble you. But the break away has done me good. The romance of it was wearing off, and it was becoming more of a job. Some of the fun was gone."

Few things are more romantic for a musher than to be leading the Iditarod as sun begins to warm the frigid snow of the Alaska Range.

Although the race was less than 24 hours old, several other mushers were making early pushes.

• Two Rivers veteran Aliy Zirkle, the 2000 Yukon Quest champion, left the Skwentna checkpoint, one back from Finger Lake, in third place -- despite starting 50th in Willow.

• Last year's Most Improved Musher Dallas Seavey, who leaped from 41st to sixth at the Nome finish line, bolted into the top 10 despite starting 41st. Just 22 years old, Seavey is a former national class wrestler.

• Cagey veteran Rick Swenson, the winningest musher in Iditarod history with five titles, had zoomed up from 57th to 12th by the time he eased his 16 dogs out of Skwentna at 1:53 a.m. Gone were the days Swenson could rely on his powerful dog team to come from behind late in the race.

"It's not like the old days anymore," Swenson said Saturday at the race's ceremonial start on Fourth Avenue. "You've got to stay within a few hours of the frontrunners or you're not going to be there at the end."

At the other end of the race, a half-dozen mushers had yet to reach Skwentna, about 85 miles from the Willow restart. Among that group were two veterans, Hugh Neff of Tok, the third-place finisher in the just completed Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, and Jason Barron of Lincoln, Mont., who had a top-10 finish four years ago.

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.