I have been silent long enough. From this blog I will share the story of how The Original San Francisco, Urban Iditarod was founded, by me - Tundra Tommy.

The short version is that a friend and I wanted to create a Cacophony Society event in San Francisco. We had no constraints on what that event might be like, and somehow, at the end of some evening, the concept of an “Urban Iditarod” was born.

I researched the Alaskan Original, even calling Nome for tourist information about the event. They sent me a nice info pack through the mail and we tailored the event to mirror the original “as much as possible.” We scouted the locations, created a map, and promoted the event through the Rough Draft and via friends.

That first year, the first saturday in March 1994, as the Alaskan dogs left Anchorage for their 1,000 mile journey, 4 teams of 5 people, in various versions of doggie-ness assembled downtown San Francisco for our 3.5 mile Urban Iditarod.

Through the years the event grew primarily through word of mouth, with limited promotion, eventually expanding beyond San Francisco to at last count some 7 cities (Portland, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Austin, and Cincinnati)

What happened between March ‘94 and today is a much longer story. Stay Tuned.