Holmes leads early in Kobuk 440

It should shock no one to see Jessie Holmes take an early lead in a race. It has worked out for him well this season, and has worked in his past wins in this race. Holmes isn't alone, though. Kevin Hansen, the hometown team, is hot on his heels running just about a mile behind the reigning champ. 

Hansen ran a solid race in his rookie Iditarod where he lead for a good portion of the race and gave his fellow rookies a run for their money for rookie of the year. Hansen ended up coming in the third highest ranked rookie in Iditarod. He's also been pretty consistent in the Kobuk over the last few years. These are his stomping grounds, and it looks like he wants to take advantage of the trails and having such a solid team to challenge Holmes.

Behind the top two are about five more teams on the trail between Noorvik and Selawik. While everyone chose to spend time in Noorvik, there are significantly different strategies in rest schedules early in the race. Every team must take a combined total of 20 hours of mandatory rest, and the race keeps track on their leaderboards for fans and officials alike can keep track on who really is where on the mushing math side of things.

The weather seems to be "perfect" for a dog race. Bluebird skies wished the mushers well as they took off on the sea ice at 12:30pm Thursday. The mass start went off without a hitch and the mushers so far have been all smiles in photos and video shared.

The 440 is one of the longer mid-distance races (some call it long distance even though it is under the 500 mile mark), so it's still anyone's race at this point, but Holmes is going to make them pry it out of his hands.