ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A mix of mushers, dogs and fans crowded the streets of downtown Anchorage Saturday morning for the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

It's an event staged mainly for spectators and sponsors, before the 64 teams set off into the wilderness at the race re-start Sunday, 45 miles north of here.

While the mushers were relaxed, the dogs were raring to go, their barks and howls echoing through the streets as they pulled at their harnesses.

"My dogs are like kids cooped up waiting for Christmas," said Sonny King, 54. A veterinarian from Spartanburg, S.C., King is running his sixth Iditarod.

"This is a fun morning. A woman dropped off breakfast for us." King said as he greeted fans and chatted with old friends.

Charlie Boulding of Manley drew the top starting position and was the first musher to leave the chute for the 20-mile run to Eagle River. Boulding, a perennial top-20 finisher, is running his 10th Iditarod.

Defending champion Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., wearing bib No. 8, was seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive victory. Another win would give him his fifth overall win, tying him with Rick Swenson of Two Rivers for the most Iditarod victories.

The mushers will be seeking their share of the $550,000 purse, with the first to reach Nome collecting $62,857 and a new pickup truck.

The ceremonial start had the atmosphere of a block party, with vendors selling reindeer sausages and coffee. As fans milled about taking photographs, the mushers gave autographs to children bundled up against the chilly temperatures.

The biggest crowd was gathered around DeeDee Jonrowe of Willow. Jonrowe, running her 20th Iditarod, is a perennial top-10 finishers and a fan favorite.

Posing for picture after picture, she accepted a good luck charm from a little girl, answered questions from a TV crew and signed photographs for a 4th-grade class in Illinois and a 2nd-grade class in North Carolina.

"I do enjoy this," Jonrowe said. "Without fans where would the race be? We really love our lifestyle and we owe it to the fans."

Binky Stephenson, 60, a montessori school teacher from Houston, Texas was an Idita-rider -- one of the lucky fans who won the bidding for a short ride in a musher's sled during the ceremonial start.

"My three darling children made the mistake of asking me what I wanted for my birthday," she said.

Stephenson has followed the race from Houston for the past eight years and was excited to finally find herself at the start. "This is my first Iditarod," she said.

"Mine, too," said rookie musher Garth Elsdon of Anchorage, who was carrying Stephenson in his sled. Elsdon, 52, said he would be happy to finish in the middle of the pack on his first trip up the trail.

Hoping for a better finish was Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers. Zirkle was the first woman to win the thousand-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse in 2000.

Zirkle finished 33rd in her first Iditarod last year.

"We really had to give it another try," Zirkle said. "I just want to do well in this race. I think I can."

After a winter of training her team on trails near her home, Zirkle said her dogs would be excited to head out into new territory.

"It spunks them up. They're pumped and I am, too."