King Comes in Second

Jeff King was the second musher to arrive into Nome this morning, crossing under the burled arch at 4:05am. King had been purposefully nipping at the heels of Lance Mackey for over half the race allowing Mackey to break trail as the two mushers worked their way to Nome. Jeff did pull ahead of Lance between Kaltag and Unalakleet and King won the Wells Fargo “Gold Coast Award” for a record-tying 5th time, King remarked that there was another record he was hoping to tie at 5 wins this year.

King is one of a handful of successful mushers who haven’t been able to bring home the record-tying 5th Iditarod Championship…. The late Susan Butcher was on her way in 1989, but similar to this year wasn’t able to hold the lead to Joe Runyan after leaving White Mountain. Martin Buser, and the recently retired Doug Swingley have also attempted a 5th championship.

Probably the most defining moment of King’s race came just over 24 hours ago when he arrived into Elim three minutes behind Mackey - both mushers headed inside the checkpoint to take a few hours break and when Lance put his gear down to take a nap, so did King. Mackey didn’t fall asleep but waited for King, and after only 1 and a half hours rest, Mackey headed out onto the trail while King slept back in the checkpoint. King woke up less than an hour later and gave chase to Mackey, but was never able to catch up.

lance mackey won the iditarod

Mackey takes a few moments with each of his dogs on the sea ice moments before entering Front Street, Mackey speaks to his father on a cell phone under the burled arch after winning the 2008 Iditarod)

In one of the closest Iditarods in recent history, Lance Mackey and Jeff King led the race for most of the last week coming into some checkpoints just minutes apart. There were many times over half the race, and even the last 24 hours it was impossible to predict who was going to be crossing under the burled arch first, but we can now congratulate and celebrate with the entire Mackey family as at 2:46am:

LANCE MACKEY WINS HIS SECOND IDITAROD TITLE IN TWO YEARS.

Its a tough feat that’s very rarely done, but back to back Iditarods are still possible and this whole thing is even more amazing given the fact that Mackey just won his fourth consecutive Yukon Quest title just a mere few weeks ago.

History was going to be made this morning, regardless of which of the two mushers arrived into Nome first, Jeff King came into this year looking for his 5th Career Iditarod win, a number that would have tied him with Rick Swenson as the most winning-est musher in history. Martin Buser, Doug Swingley, Jeff King, and the late Susan Butcher have all attempted to make the monumental leap from being a 4 time champion, to being a 5 time champion but all have come very close, but have been unsuccessful. We’re expecting Jeff to arrive into Nome in just under an hour from now.

We’ll have audio in just a few moments, and will have more pictures coming in throughout the next few hours from Iditablog photographer Chris Carlson.

The next, even more contested spot in this year’s Iditarod is for third place as Ramey Smyth, Ken Anderson, Martin Buser and Hans Gatt all left White Mountain within half an hour of each other. I’m sure that the next 70 miles for these competitors will be pretty stressful as the difference between 3rd and 6th will be separated by just a few moments. Ramey Smyth has been an “up and coming” musher for the last few years after his 4th place finish in 2004. Smyth is one of those guys that you least want to go up against in the final stretch of the trail, he has won the Nome Kennel club’s “fastest from Safety to Nome” award six times and has been called one of the best closers in Iditarod history. Ken Anderson is also an up and coming musher, his best finish was fifth in 2003, although he was in Jeff King’s shoes just a few weeks ago as he battled Lance Mackey in the Yukon Quest and narrowly lost to the reigning champion. Martin Buser was looking for his 5th Iditarod win this year just like King, however was the first to admit his schedule was not competitive enough to go up against Mackey and King. Finally, Hans Gatt is looking to improve his Iditarod best of 12th back in 2000 with a top ten finish this year, however Gatt knows the thrill of victory all to well as he won the Yukon Quest three times in a row over 2002-2004.

The most interesting part of this year’s top ten is the amount of successful Quest mushers that have run both races back to back with mostly the same teams. Mackey proved last year that you could be competitive in both races without sacrifice. Look for the Iditarod to change even more over the next few years as it feels the “Mackey effect”.