A note: I have just emerged from a filmed interview with Lance Mackey and his father, the 1978 Iditarod Champ, Dick Mackey with a new understanding of the human spirit.
The Incredible Lance Mackey — In Five Hundred Words Or Less
Lance Mackey, age 36, finished on Front Street, weaving his team through crowds of fans, slapping hands with hundreds of his supporter, in Nome at 8:08 41′ PM, March 13, 2007 and won the 1100 mile 2007 Iditarod. In addition, just ten days before the Iditarod start, he negotiated the old Klondike trail across Lake Lebarge, then portaged to the Yukon River, and won the 1000 mile Yukon Quest from Whitehorse, Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.
And, get this, you won’t believe it—it seems impossible— and defies all conventional knowledge—he did it with the same indominatable huskies, including the “brains of the entire operation,” a tireless and resolutely dependable gray huskie with a serious, thoughtful demeanor, who sits unquestionably at the head of the Mackey team of man and sled dogs as leader, the dog we know as LARRY.
What could possibly motivate and drive a musher and his huskies to accomplish this overwhelmingly difficult feat, and in this moment of extreme self-preoccupation, share it with his family?
Our story begins with the young Lance Mackey born into the world of sled dogs. His father, Dick Mackey, wins an historic Iditarod in 1978, eclipsing the legendary Ric Swenson at the finish line by just one second. His older brother Ric establishes his own kennel of huskies, and wins the Iditarod in 1983. The Mackey name is indelibly printed in Iditarod history.
Although Lance can visualize himself as an Iditarod winner as a youngster, he flounders, by his own admission, aimless and not “a person a father could be proud.” When we pressed Lance, he gave it to us straight—like he always does. Working as a fisherman, foregoing an opportunity for more education, he admits the wasted sesnselessness of partying and drinking. As a result, his personal life grew desperately self-destructive and he realized he had to change—-to survive.
It is a familiar drama, the human experience with a little sadness, and , for the sentamentalist, a love story too—- but with twists. At this low point, he meets his wife Tonya and both resolve to change direction. They move several times, change behavior, separate themselves from past associations, and eventually move to Kasiloff on the Kenai Peninsula, close to the ocean and water that Lance learned to love as a fisherman. He and his wife arrive with one dog, a Labrador.
Lance inevitably meets local residents Timmy and Dean Osmar (the Iditarod champ), Paul Gebhardt, and other mushers. The life he had as a boy is rekindled and by 2000 Lance has acquired 10 dogs, the off casts from other kennels. Working, Lance neverthess finds times on the weekends to enter his dogs into one or two day “sprint” races, and discovers that he does well enough to pick up a little side money—-”could be fifty bucks or five hundred, but I always placed.”
Surprised by his success, he announces to his wife that he might do better with his own kennel operation, and with her unwavering support, Lance formulates a plan, and gives himself a 6 year window to produce results. If not successful, he logically concludes he will put his energy into another project.
But the plan has obstacles. He finishes the 2001 Iditarod in 36th place, but after the race Lance and the Mackey family discover he has an advanced cancer which must be aggressively treated. He is thirty years old. “We didn’t know if he would make it,” his father Dick told us with an emotion that deeply affected me and our media group recording the interview.
With an inconclusive prognosis, Lance returns home and sits for hours in his truck, the heater full blast, and studies and contemplates the dogs tethered in his dog yard. Gradually, his strength returns, and for ten minutes he lugs half a bucket of feed down a line of hungry huskies. The interval increases to twenty minutes before he returns to the truck for another redeeming rest, and day by day, he recuperates and the “plan” transforms from an idea into a singular passion. Dick Mackey, thinking out loud to that time in the past, told us “the dogs brought him back to life.”
Lance returns to the Iditarod in 2004, then discovers the art of winning with three successive victories in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in the Yukon Quest, a grueling 1000 mile race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. His trademark style of exuberance, unencumbered emotion, and ceaseless activity leave his fans in respectful awe. To compensate for salivary glands that were removed, he always carries a water bottle, sipping and then chewing, and generally finds that he must wait for checkpoints to eat. He also races the Iditarod ten days later, an inconceivable physical effort for most mushers, and notices and discovers the subtleties of racing long distance dogs over many hundreds of miles. He places in the top ten, a monumental effort in itself and becomes convinced by his experiences that his dogs are capable of these incredible efforts. Even more, with correct handling and care, Lance believes that they are actually better prepared to compete. He vows to prove it.
Finally, in 2007 he triumphs again in the bitter cold of February and wins his third Yukon Quest. He begins the Iditarod a considered favorite, but pundits are skeptical, clearly not convinced that one musher and team of dogs could triumph in both endurance venues. On the Yukon River, over halfway on the historic Iditarod trail, however, a persistent doubt is replaced by a curious revelation as Lance’s dogs advance on the river in an easy, fluid, ground-covering trot. “Is it possible?” fans and mushers ask, that we have not explored the limits, not thought deep enough about the possibilities of men and animals?
On Tuesday, March 13, Lance Mackey wins the Iditarod, and becomes the only musher to conquer the Yukon Quest and Iditarod—-back to back— in the same year. He also wins the hearts of his fans, who not only witnessed a magnificent performance—-but also grew and learned, by his example.