Twin Sisters Are Iditarod Racers

We don't get much Iditarod coverage around these parts, so thank you to tipster Brandon for sending this along. Anna and Kristy Berington are Wisconsin natives living in Alaska. Above all else, they are trailblazing dog racers. As you read this they are probably mushing their way through the Alaskan wilderness, making them not only the first set of twins to run the Iditarod, but the first sisters to ever do so.

Kristy has been participating in the race for several years now, but this is Anna's first run in the race that is usually male-dominated.

As a result, some onlookers were quick to dismiss Kristy when she began racing, Anna said.

"A lot of people kind of get the feeling that she's just a pretty face. That she doesn't know what she's doing, that kind of thing," Anna said. "But she's definitely proven that she is a dog musher."

Kristy Berington finished 39th in the 2010 Iditarod and 29th in 2011. She placed ninth in this year's Yukon Quest, a 1,000-mile race that's often considered a more punishing journey than the Iditarod[.]

Prior to Anna entering the race this year, the twins often discussed pulling Parent trap-style pranks, subbing in for each other and winning the whole thing. Says former mortuary owner and current dog-musher "apprentice," Scott Janssen "[w]hen the twins each braid their hair and dress in matching gear, they're mirror images."

In fact, the twins are so identical that they fooled their own mother.

"Our mom didn't even know she was having twins until Anna was born," said Kristy Berington, who is five minutes older than her sister and fellow sled dog racer. "She never even got an ultrasound and our heartbeats were completely identical."

The Iditarod!

Iditarod's sister act: Twins to hit the trail [Anchorage Daily News]