Participants in the Iditarod, an annual 1,600 kilometre-long sled dog race in a remote area of the US state of Alaska, are almost half way along the route Sixty-six teams on Saturday set out from downtown Anchorage in the east of Alaska, snaking their way across the frozen tundra to the city of Nome in the west. They are hoping to beat the record - set two years ago - of eight days, 19 hours, 46 minutes and 39 seconds. Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports from Alaska.
