Last Sunday saw the start of 2008′s Iditarod Invitational, a 350 or 1100 mile race across the frozen Alaskan wilderness from Anchorage to McGrath or Nome.

It’s now heating up into a race with quite a few riders having hit the 150mile mark – you can check the leaderboard here

So far it’s looking good for Brits, James Leavesley and Carl Hutchings in the male category and Jill Homer in the female race – who’s possibly on for a course record to McGrath.

Of course, where there’s a challenge there’s always someone who wants to push it to the limits, this year that person is Mike Curiak as he attempts the 1100 race to Nome, entirely unsupported. You can keep up with his progress on his own site.