Master Sergeant Rodney Whaley, a Tennessee Army National Guardsmen will become the first Tennessean in history to compete in Alaska's 2008 Iditarod, billed as "The World's Last Great Race." He is one of only 102 people in the world to qualify for the 1,159-mile race. Of that number, 52 are from Alaska, 14 from other states and 16 from foreign countries. The Iditarod Race is considered by many to be the most grueling and demanding individual sporting event in the world today. The 56-year-old National Guardsman from Franklin, Tennessee, will run 16 sled dogs in the event. The two-week race will take the Tennessean over frozen rivers, jagged mountain ranges, dense forests, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast. Added to that are temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs on side hills. To qualify for the Iditarod, Whaley was required to successfully complete two sanctioned races, one of 300 miles and the other of 200 miles. He began full-time training in October of last year in Michigan and Minnesota, but he's been a familiar site in his Franklin neighborhood during the cold months as he ran his team using a "dogsled-on-wheels." The Iditarod Trail had its beginnings as a mail and supply route from coastal towns to the interior mining camps. Men and supplies went in; gold came out, all via dog sled. Heroes were made and legends were born. In 1925, part of the Trail became a life-saving highway for epidemic-stricken Nome. Diphtheria threatened the populace and serum had to be rushed in, again by intrepid musher’s and their faithful, hard-driving dogs. The Iditarod is a commemoration of those early years, a not-so-distant past of which the Alaskans are particularly proud.