One-hundred and thirty-nine teams will hit the pavement in Skagway Friday night, for the 23rd annual Klondike Trail of 98 International Road Relay.

That means the number of people registered for the event rose five teams from last year, when 134 crews took part.

The annual road relay, which runs from Skagway to Whitehorse each year, will begin at 7 p.m. Yukon time in the Alaskan town and is expected to wrap up by 3 p.m. Saturday in Rotary Peace Park.

Participants follow the trail of the gold rush, over the famous White Pass, through B.C. and into the Yukon, finishing up along the bank of the Yukon River. There are teams from all over Canada, dozens from Alaska and one from Minnesota this year, as well as those from the Yukon.

'It's good to see (so many people taking part),' said race organizer Trevor Twardochleb, in an interview this morning. 'It would have been nice to hit 140, but the last time we saw numbers higher than this was in 1998, I think, when we had 163. Certainly, this year is a great turnout.'

The 176-kilometre event is broken into 10 legs, ranging from 9.3 km to 25.6 km. It starts at sea level, climbs to an elevation of about 1004 metres in the first two legs, and descends to about 610 m toward the finish line.

Teams of six to ten participants run in various categories, with each team allowed one support vehicle. The 2004 relay will have eight official categories; Open Mixed, Women, Junior, Masters Open, Masters Mixed, Masters Women and Corporate.

A special walking category will once again be offered this year, which involved Legs 7 t 10 only. The start time for walkers at checkpoint seven, which is in Carcross, will be 3:30 a.m. Saturday and the latest departure for Leg 10 walkers will be 12:00 p.m. from the Carcross Corner.

The latest departure for Leg 10 runners will be 1 p.m. Saturday, even if their Leg 9 runner has not yet arrived. Times will be adjusted to make allowance for Leg 9 runners arriving at the checkpoint after the last runner has left.

The relay is run on paved highway throughout the night and into the next day and the weather can be a huge factor. In past years, it's ranged from sunshine and beautiful, clear nights, to foggy, rainy and sometimes snowy conditions which can really hamper runners in the dark.

The forecast this year calls for scattered cloud and temperatures in the teens in Skagway Friday evening, with some cloud and a high of 17 C in the Whitehorse area Saturday.

'As long as we're not socked in, so we can enjoy the scenery along the way, although I guess you can't really see much in the dark anyway,' said Twardochleb.

Twardochleb said he did meet with the RCMP this year, to go over any safety concerns and make sure both sides understood where eachother were coming from.

'I tried to make the point last night (at the captain's meeting) that the support vehicles have to be travelling close to the speed limit,' he explained. 'Don't travel really slow during the day because the RCMP need to be moving traffic along.'

If someone comes around a corner fast, for example, it could cause a collision if a support vehicle is going too slow, and the faster car doesn't see them on time to stop. While that has never been an issue before, they don't ever want it to be, said Twardochleb.

For the most part, though, the race organizer said people 'seem to have the race down pat.'

The road relay is something all of the participants look forward to all year, he said.

'It just blows my mind how many e-mails I get, saying, Oh, I can't wait for the relay.''

While the relay is extremely popular now, Twardochleb said it's possible there may be a bit of a drop in participation numbers sometime in the next few years, since the majority of the teams who take part now have been doing so for years. Sooner or later, he said, they will get either too old to take part or just tire of doing it.

It's hoped, of course, that a younger group will catch on to the event and run with it, starting a new generation of road relay athletes. But this year, there isn't one runner under the age of 18 in the event.

'Some of the teams have been trying to pop a couple of youngsters onto their team, to light a fire under them,' said Twardochleb. 'So there'll be a sort of changing of the guard in the next couple of years, I think.'

One of the things which only seems to be improving with time is the number of volunteers who turn out for the relay each year. This year, there are about 350, which is a lot more than previous years, said Twardochleb.

Part of that is because the dance and awards ceremony Saturday night at Rotary Park has grown in size, which means more security, more ticket takers and more people to sell merchandise.

'It's one of the biggest volunteer events in the territory on annual basis,' he said. 'And all of these people will be geared up for 2007 (Canada Winter Games), I'm sure.'

Here is a short description of each Leg of the Klondike road relay:

Leg 1 14.1 km

START to Whitepass Viewpoint.

Leg 2 9.3 km

Viewpoint to U.S./Canada Border.

This is the steepest part of the relay, as well as the shortest. Also, visibility and weather can be very poor in the pass and runners must cross the road to reach the checkpoint.

Leg 3 12.5 km

Border to Canada Customs.

Leg 4 21.4 km

Customs to Tutshi Lake.

Leg 5 22.5 km

Tutshi Lake to B.C./Yukon Border.

Leg 6 25.6 km

Border to Carcross.

This is the longest portion of the relay.

Leg 7 14.2 km

Carcross to Emerald Lake.

Leg 8 19.8 km

Emerald Lake to Annie Lake Road.

Leg 9 17.9 km

Annie Lake Road to Carcross

Corner.

Leg 10 19.1 km

Carcross Corner to FINISH.

Anchorage's Take No Prisoners were he overall winners of last year's relay for the third year in a row competing in the open category, with a time of 11 hours, 23 minutes and 52 seconds. The Prisoners will be back again this year, to defend their title.

The top women's team was Sportees Timed Travellers, with a time of 13:55:24, while the Vestigial Appendages were the best mixed team, posting a time of 12:27:16.

The masters open category was claimed by the Smokin' Ole Geezers, with a time of 13:01:20. Lady Gu Divas were the top masters women crew, collecting a time of 13:44:55 while Peak Performers 1 had the best time in the masters mixed division, at 12:40:34.

In corporate competition, it was Skinney Raven claiming the fastest time, at 14:41:20. The Aurora Geo-Walkers were tops in the walkers division, finishing their four-leg course in a time of 9:23:29.

The fastest time ever posted in the road relay was 10 hours, 16 minutes and 28 seconds, by the Juneau 'B' team (open) from Auke Bay, Alaska, in 1990.

For women, the record time is 12 hours, 48 minutes and 18 seconds, achieved by Wild Women Do from Anchorage in 1996. And in the mixed division, the fastest recorded time is 10 hours, 58 minutes and three seconds, posted by Take No Prisoners of Eagle, Alaska, in 1995.

The masters open record is held by Alaska Masters of Juneau, with a time of 11 hours, 14 minutes and five seconds.

There was a new masters women record set in 2004, as the Lady Gu Divas from Douglas, Alaska clocked in at 13 hours, 44 minutes and 55 seconds. Seven, Three and One of Anchorage has been the fastest masters mixed team to date, with a time of 12 hours, 15 minutes and 18 seconds, recorded in 1997.

In corporate competition, Whitehorse's North of 60 Generations holds the record, with a time of 11 hours, 51 minutes and 24 seconds, posted in 1998.