Ladies First?

Aily Zirkle is the lady to beat.

This could be a good year for the Iditarod ladies.

Sure, four-time champion Lance Mackey pulled out of Finger Lake first, followed by 70-year-old Jim Lanier of Chugiak, but 2000 Yukon Quest champion Aily Zirkle of Two Rivers is running third.

Also in the game is last year's winner, 49-year-old John Baker of Kotzebue, the first Inupiat Eskimo to win, and the first Alaska native since Jerry Riley in 1976.

Another pair to watch are Wisconsin twins Anna and Kristy Berington. They are the first twins to ever run the Iditarod. Kristy came in ninth in this year’s Yukon Quest.
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Anna and Kristy Berington are likely to do very well.