With a seven-course gourmet meal in his belly and his dogs fresh after an eight-hour, straw-lined snooze, Montana musher Doug Swingley launched a swift drive down the mile-wide Yukon River Friday evening, leading the 28th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race into a crisp, cold night of fierce competition. Swingley pulled out of the Yukon River village of Ruby - about 500 miles from the finish in Nome - at 5:05 p.m., precisely eight hours after he arrived that morning. (Mushers must rest eight hours at a Yukon checkpoint of their choice.) Yet it seemed clear that Swingley had seized no dramatic advantage. Chasing within hours were six top contenders, several with teams capable of matching Swingley's fast dogs in strength and speed. Only 39 minutes behind drove Healy musher Ramy Brooks, champion of the 1999 Yukon Quest. An hour back followed Kasilof musher Paul Gebhardt, who won this year's Copper Basin 300, and Manley trapper Charlie Boulding, champ of this year's Kuskokwim 300, each on the trail only four minutes apart. But like a storm rising on the horizon, perhaps Swingley's most serious threat loomed about three hours back. Over a 17-minute span just after 8 p.m., three-time champs Jeff King and Martin Buser, and five-time champ Rick Swenson took up the chase. Along with Boulding, all three men had been posting travel times between checkpoints on par with Swingley. A three-hour gap some 500 miles from Nome has been overcome many times in previous Iditarods. In 1998, for instance, Willow musher DeeDee Jonrowe led down the Yukon River, reaching Galena by 6:30 p.m. on Friday. But King, who started the leg about three hours behind in fifth position, eventually overtook Jonrowe and seized his third championship. This year's Yukon dash has begun. Already, Swingley has taken the halfway prize of $3,000 in gold nuggets, and he's taken the first-to-the-Yukon award of a catered meal and a $3,500 cash prize. He told 1989 champ Joe Runyan that his original notion had been to "blow the race wide open" by racing straight through to Galena, Runyan reported on Cabela's web site. But the location of Cripple camp - shifted north this year - had been much further out than expected. So he halted in Ruby. Buser and Swenson were traveling on equally careful schedules of run and rest, Runyan pointed out. Still, Swingley's timing mimicked the winning schemes of his two previous victories. "My confidence keeps building every time I run them," Swingley said of his 12-dog team. "They just keep getting better and better." Then the two-time winner sauntered indoors for a candle-lit dinner hosted by Regal Alaskan Hotel's chef Laston Williams, cooking on a camp stove. He didn't dine alone. Swingley asked 1989 Iditarod winner Joe Runyan to join him for a feast that began with a champagne toast and ended with Swingley receiving $3,500 in new $1 bills. The candlelight dinner was a trip down memory lane for Swingley and Runyan. The pair had decided during Swingley's rookie year, 1992, to take their mandatory 24-hour layover in Ruby. At that time, most teams were stopping for the long rest in McGrath or Nikolai, more than 200 miles back. "We came up with this crazy plan to come all the way," Swingley said. But temperatures plummeted to more than 50 degrees below zero on the trail to Ruby. "It was life-threatening conditions," Swingley said. But their plan didn't get them to Nome first. Martin Buser seized the first of his three victories that year, while Swingley took ninth (his worst finish ever) and Runyan scratched. On Friday, the pair reminisced as they dined on reindeer gumbo, shrimp and crab salad, tournedos of halibut and braised medallions of tenderloin, finishing with fresh fruit and espresso mousse. "It is pretty nostalgic for me too, that race and being here," said Runyan. As Swingley and Runyan finished their meal, they were joined by four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher, who last raced in 1994. The talk quickly turned to this year's race. Swenson "would be my pick for the competition," Swingley said. When Swenson's team reaches the flats of the Yukon River, "he's going to start boogeying." Swingley and Runyan weren't the only mushers to get a good meal. Ramy Brooks and Charlie Boulding also showed up, and were invited to steak dinners. But unlike Swingley, and Runyan, they didn't rate the fine china. Their steaks came on plastic plates. "Charlie, you want a glass of red?" asked Richard Leslie, the Regal Alaskan's food and beverage director. "Sure," Boulding said. "A whole bottle." * Mary Pemberton of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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