March 18, 2009
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Pictures and Details from Nome and the Iditarod Trail
Lance Mackey in White Mountain, 3/17/09
(Photo from AP)Recently, Lance Mackey said of his team, “They’re superstars!” Most of the 15 dogs who won the 2009 Iditarod had not been in either of Lance’s previous winning teams. They are young, and could have several more wins during their racing careers. Zorro, the foundation stud for Comeback Kennels, now retired, has sired a line of undeniably superior sled dogs.
Larry, one of the veterans on this year’s team, led them down Nome’s Front Street today…
…where Tonya greeted her victorious husband with a kiss.
“Immediately after winning, he gave treats to his dogs. ‘This never gets old,’ he said at the finish line, hugging two of his dogs. ‘It’s pretty awesome,’ he added. ‘Pretty cool.’” (Mary Pemberton, AP)
Craig Medred wrote:
“As he came across the Bering Sea ice outside of town, 15 of the 16 dogs with which he had started the real race north at Willow on March 8 were rolling along at a steady trot, pulling in harness like so many Eveready bunnies.”“I’m so proud to get through this,” Mackey said [to KTUU]. “This one was really, really smooth. I’ve never had a team work like this as a whole, come together in every situation. In every situation they seemed to excel.”
A few hours before Lance’s triumphal passage under the Burled Arch, Kim Darst, the Iditarod rookie helicopter pilot from New Jersey, had to be airlifted off the trail.
Sebastian Schnuelle and John Baker were about six hours behind Mackey out of White Mountain and should finish in second and third places today.
The next six, in contention for fourth through ninth places, Burmeister, Royer, the Seaveys father and son, and the brothers Smyth, are waiting out their 8 hour rests in White Mountain.
Fifty-six teams are still on the trail. Current Red Lantern is Trent Herbst.
It’s not over yet. There is still the Awards Banquet, pictures from that….
Later
Comments (6)
well done.
Oh my. He must feel so elated. Three times. I guess that’s the charming number.
Thank Kathy. Great news.
Congrats to Lance & his dogs for their victory!
did anyone else catch the fact the Lance armstrong has won the tour d’ france consecutively (what is it seven times now) and now Lance Mackey has one the Iditarod did you say three times? So is this one of lifes coincedences or what. maybe he has four more wins in him?
@KarlaandSuperMedic - Last year, when Lance Mackey won his second Iditarod, he also won the Yukon Quest for the fourth time in a row. The previous year, he had become the first person ever to win both the Quest and Iditarod in the same year. Two years in a row of that gives him a record that will be hard to beat. This year, he opted out of the Quest to lease dogs to the National Guard and train Guardsman Harry Alexie.
He set a record yesterday, first time anyone has won Iditarod
with as many as 15 dogs. Getting all but one dog to Nome in
competitive time is incredible. Other teams in this year’s top ten have from 8
to 13.
Greyfox and I were discussing his prospects last night. As Lance has said many times, his dogs are superstars. The bloodlines that started with Zorro are something special. If he keeps it up, he’s unbeatable unless someone else comes up with another Zorro. If Lance’s bloodlines and racing strategies (longer runs, less rest, more food) spread, it will change the sport as much as the new sled designs have done in the last two decades.
This year, he said that he stopped at a shelter cabin and was going to take a nap, but the dogs were jumping and howling to go, so he went with them. Genes have to be part of it, but I’m sure the bond between man and dogs is extraordinary, too. Lance’s stepson, Cain Carter, won this year’s Jr. Iditarod and will be old enough for Iditarod next year, with dogs from Comeback Kennel and the same attitudes and techniques he learned from Lance. It will be interesting.
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