Mushers tell yarns, get trophies at finishers’ banquet

NOME, Alaska, — The Iditarod’s awards banquet is never complete without a song from Jim Lanier, the race’s “oldest” participant, as Lanier’s son, Jimmy, noted from the podium at this city’s civic center, which was packed with a boisterous crowd.

Lanier, 66, and his son, 9, sang a duet this year, a lullaby about falling asleep by not counting sheep but by counting your sled dogs’ feet. Other mushers told stories and jokes at the expense of competitors from the trail, and they thanked their sponsors.

Gerry Willomitzer hopped on the stage with a shiner on one of his eyes, and said the two most common questions he’d had in Nome were, how’d you get that black eye and which race is tougher, the Yukon Quest or the Iditarod? His answer to the second question was the races are the two toughest races in the world. And the black eye? “I don’t know how I got it, but I do know I was running most of the race with Matt Hayashida,” he began. “Matt left before I did at Koyuk, so I figure he punched me in the eye while I was sleeping.”

Hayashida, who finished one spot ahead of Willomitzer in 29th place, was grinning as he leapt onto the stage. “I’m smaller than Gerry, so I had to hit him while he was asleep,” he deadpanned.

Aliy Zirkle talked about joyful moments in a race that was dominated by gritty conditions. She saw the sun rise down on the Yukon River, which cast an orange glow across the river and triggered her to howl like a sled dog, startling the dog musher up ahead of her.

And of course there were the awards. This year, the “first to” awards were split among three mushers, all of whom finished in the top four. Martin Buser won the PenAir Spirit of Alaska award for being first to McGrath. Lance Mackey took the GCI Dororthy Page Halfway Award for being first to Iditarod. Buser reclaimed the lead and won the Millennium Hotel First to the Yukon award at Anvik. And Jeff King surged to the front by the coast, and got the Wells Fargo Gold Coast award for being first to Unalakleet.

And nobody could match Cim Smyth’s tremendous feat, or feet, in reaching Nome from Safety in just two hours, four minutes, earning him the Nome Kennel Club Fastest Time from Safety to Nome Award. Smyth wore sneakers from White Mountain to the finish, and ran to stay warm.

Then there were the awards voted on by mushers and veterinarians.

The coveted Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award went to Ed Iten, who finished a strong sixth place with a very happy team. When the award was announced, the crowd stood for an ovation, showing their tremendous respect and admiration for Iten’s skills and dog care. All the mushers around him said he had the power and speed to finish higher, but Iten realized, too late in the race, that he couldn’t make up ground on the leaders.

The most inspirational musher? Here are a few hints. Every musher runs into road blocks. But this musher has never met a road block that he hasn’t somehow rebuilt into a ramp suitable for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Born to a legendary mushing family, he rejected dog mushing in his early adulthood, came back to the sport and built his own kennel from scratch. His dog trucks die on the way to races, yet he makes the starting line. Cancer nearly killed him, but the setback only made him more dogged. They said he couldn’t run the Yukon Quest and still hope to win the Iditarod with the same dogs, but he answered that by winning both. Finally, on this year’s race, the trail snapped one of his runners at the back stanchion, and he not only rode some of the worst trail all the way to McGrath on one rail, but posted some of the fastest run times to boot. The winner was Lance Mackey.

The Sportsmanship Award, given to a musher who helps others selflessly, went to Tollef Monson for the second year in a row. Last year, several dog sleds were damaged by hitting a poorly placed stump on the way to Cripple. Lots of mushers complained about it. But only Monson stopped, pulled out his ax, and eliminated the problem. This year, he used his own repair kit to patch up another musher’s sled, but he also grabbed a needle and thread and sewed up the musher’s torn sled bag. He had the time to do all this while still competing for a top-10 finish.

Monson also earned the GIT Satellite Communications Most Improved Musher Award, which is a mathematical formula. Monson finished 44th last year and 10th this year. Nobody else climbed 34 spots.

Sigrid Ekran was given a trophy for being the fastest rookie to Nome. Ekran set a perfect rookie pace, just slightly faster than another rookie, Silvia Willis. They stretched their own abilities and their dogs’ and finished strong.

The Lolly Medley Golden Harness Award went to one of this year’s most beloved characters, Mackey’s lead dog Larry. The furry gray sled dog seemed pretty pleased to have the award, and Mackey said he’ll never have another dog like him.

A very respected veterinarian, Mike Gascoigne, was given the Golden Stethoscope Award, voted on by the mushers. He was singled out for his conscientious care, notably of Zorro, one of Mackey’s main dogs. Gascoigne spent a long night keeping one eye on Zorro as the dog slept at White Mountain. There were many other veterinarians doing great work again this year, the mushers noted, including a team that fought to save one of Karen Ramstead’s dogs that had an ulcer.

The Golden Clipboard Award, given to an outstanding checkpoint, went to an unlikely place: Eagle Island. Eagle Island is known for being desolate, wind-blown and remote. It’s nothing but a temporary tent camp. This year, though, volunteers made great efforts to park teams in a sheltered slough; they built an outhouse of snow blocks and had a warm wall tent for mushers to sleep in, with a pot of hot water so the mushers could melt meals.

A new award in 2007 was the Northern Air Cargo Herbie Nayokpuk Memorial Award, voted on by checkers and given to a musher who best epitomizes Nayokpuk’s spirit of mushing. Nayokpuk died this year, but when he raced, he brought a combination of toughness, competition, good humor and tradition. This year’s first recipient was Louis Nelson Sr. of Kotzebue, who was described as “a true gentleman on the trail.” The 64-year-old was a positive influence on his team, treated everyone with respect and plainly loves racing and the lifestyle it takes to prepare for it. He was given a new Carhartt jacket with its pockets stuffed with $1,049 in cash.

One other award was still being decided. Four or five teams remained on the trail, creeping ever closer to the finish line in Nome in the hunt for the Wells Fargo Red Lantern Award, given to the final team to cross the finish line.