More than 50 teams took off from Main Street at 12:30 today, for the start of the 2004 Yukon River Quest.

This year, racers are expected to paddle through sunny, 30 C weather the entire way to Dawson City something a few of the competitors, such as the Australians and those from the Southern U.S., are quite used to.

'It's great for us that it's warm because that's what we're kind of used to,' said Texas resident Ginger Turner, who is competing in the Quest with her sister, Kaki Burrus, who lives in Maryland. 'I spent six months amassing clothes to wear in cold weather. Actually, I was really freaked out about the cold weather.

'I could have outfitted three people to do this race.'

Both Turner and Burrus have competed in the Texas Water Safari, a 260 mile marathon canoe race. Last year, they did the safari with their two other sisters, which was the first time in history four sisters completed the race.

'It has a lot of similarities (to the Quest) but the water safari has a lot of dams and portages, which you're not going to have here,' said Turner. 'Also, the speed of the rivers is different. That I'm really excited about just to get out there and really fly.'

Burrus said the sisters had a really good time, 'But it was my fourth finish, so in a way I felt like I'd done all that the race had to offer.'

So she decided to join her sister in the Yukon after they heard about the race through a friend.

'I do the Texas Water Safari frequently and that's a really long race,' Turner explained. 'This one was even longer so it just seemed fun to me to do this race.'

Neither sister has ever been to the Yukon, or anywhere Northwest of Oregon in the U.S. Turner did travel to P.E.I. one summer to do some sea kayaking, but said she feels extremely lucky to be in the Yukon right now. Both said their goals for the race are just to finish and experience the wilderness, although many feel they have a shot at breaking the Quest's record for female paddlers.

Turner said it's really hard for them to judge the competition, because the people who live here will have an 'extreme advantage', due to the fact they know the river.

'We're going to give it our best shot,' said Burrus. 'My goal is to keep up with her (Turner).'

'It would be nice to break the record, but that's not why we're here,' added Turner.

Both women have been training very hard for the race, paddling at least five days a week as well as hiking and biking. Burrus said everything else has to take the back-burner, such as 'your dishes, your cleaning and your social life.

'There's nothing like knowing you have to paddle 1,000 miles to make you train hard because you know if you don't, it's (the race) going to be impossible,' she said. 'And I need that kind of pressure to really push myself.'

A lot of people think the hard part is doing the actual race, she added, but the real hard part is day in and day out, getting out to practice and the anxiety of getting your boat together.

'My immediate desire is to get the boat ready,' agreed Turner. 'After that, we just have to remember to eat and drink. That's going to be key I think.'

For the Australian team of Terry Bolland and Edgar Vaneer, the key to their trip will be staying healthy they've already been on the river for six days. Bolland and Vaneer originally planned to paddle the full length of the Yukon River as a leisure trip, but then heard about the Quest and decided to include it in their plan.

So the two men flew to Whitehorse, where they bought a canoe for their river trip and rented a separate canoe for the River Quest itself. They then drove to Lake Bennett where they began their adventure.

'We spend two days here and then compete in the race,' explained Bolland. 'After that, we keep going, from Alaska to the Bearing Sea. So we will have done the entire river.

'We couldn't really resist combining the two (race and river trip) and we're hoping that we're not going to kill ourselves on the way down.'

Bolland, who owns a surf shop in Australia, said neither he nor Vaneer have done races of this length before. They haven't really had much time to train either, he added, and the idea was to get fit on the way.

That's not to say either one is out of shape though. Bolland has paddled the Mississippi River before and also cycled, canoed and walked around the United Stated and Australia about 24,000 kilometres.

'So I'm pretty familiar with marathon races but not as much races,' he said. 'Ed (Vaneer) is a good play boater. He likes the fun. He does the local weekend races a 135 kilometre light water race.

'Still, we're trying to do our best and hopefully we'll get through and give it a good shot, making sure we don't injure ourselves or we'll be coming back.'

Bolland admitted having to quit the race or the rest of the river trip would be a huge disappointment, considering how much work and money went into getting to the Yukon. He hopes to do some more sightseeing once they finish the trip, if they have time. The two men will be flying out of Anchorage eventually, but their canoe will probably we staying behind.

'There's probably no way we're going to get it back, so we'll probably give it to somebody as an early Christmas present,' he laughed.

The 740-kilometer (460 miles) Quest, the longest annual canoe and kayak race in the world, runs from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

The race record in elapsed time on the river is 44 hours and nine minutes, but most teams average between 55 and 70 hours. This does not include layovers at Carmacks (seven hours) and a new Kirkman Creek checkpoint (3 hours), which has been added at the request of racers this year for extra rest time before the final stretch.

The 51 teams are divided into these classes: tandem canoe and kayak, voyager canoe, and solo kayak. This year, there are 18 solo kayak entries, four tandem kayaks, two voyageur canoes and 26 tandem canoes.

The first teams are expected to arrive in Dawson during the early evening on Friday or on Saturday. The wrap-up Barbecue and awards night, including the cheque presentation, will be Sunday, June 27.

Nearly $15,000 in prize money will be up for grabs. Under a new prize structure, the top 10 teams overall will receive prize money and cash bonuses also will be awarded in several categories. The first place team will receive $3,000 plus entry in the 2005 race to defend their title.