Date: March 14, 2007 at 9:00 pm
NOME, Alaska — Chalk up two top 10 finishes for Team Baker in the most rugged, wind-blown Iditarod in recent memory. John Baker crossed the finish line at 9:36 a.m. Wednesday and was in the chute in street clothes three hours later to welcome his dog handler, Tollef Monson, who ran Baker’s second-string dogs. Monson rolled to a stop under the burled arch in 10th place.
It was a race of highs and lows for Baker, as it was for most every musher who didn’t finish first. A race like the Iditarod is unforgiving. Any mistake can cost minutes and hours, and there are always hungry teams willing to pass.
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Date: March 14, 2007 at 12:00 pm
NOME, Alaska — The top three in this year’s Iditarod were relative underdogs, mushers who don’t run the biggest, most elaborate kennels. It was Lance Mackey, Paul Gebhardt and Zack Steer to win, place and show.
“Score one for the dirty jackets this year,” an exhausted Steer said with a laugh after crossing the finish line at 3:46 a.m. Indeed, Steer’s bright yellow parka was stained brown from 10 days of dirt and greasy dog food.
Mackey runs on a shoestring budget, Gebhardt has a medium-sized kennel that he largely runs alone with minimal handler help, and Steer shares his kennel with Robert Bundtzen, an Anchorage doctor. Of the three, Steer is almost a part-timer, a fiercely competitive musher but one who enters only every two or three years.
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Date: March 14, 2007 at 9:13 am
Lucky number 13 proved its magical power as Lance Mackey was the first to cross under the Burled Arch in Nome in dramatic style tonight. Mackey and his team of 9 dogs arrived at 8:08 pm (Alaska Time) completing the 2007 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race in 9 days, five hours, eight minutes and forty-one seconds. Mackey set out to win this race with fierce determination, and maybe a little superstition: both his father and his brother won before him wearing bib #13. Now, Lance is the third Mackey to win the Iditarod sporting bib #13. All this happened on the 13th day of March 2007!!! On top of that, Mackey becomes the very first Iditarod musher to win both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod trail Sled Dog Race in the same year.
Thousands of fans lined Front Street in Nome to get a glimpse of the 36 year old Kasilof Alaska musher make Iditarod history in a big way. Mackey was greeted by his family and friends. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin called in to congratulate Mackey. She told him that he was an inspiration for all Alaskans
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Date: March 14, 2007 at 9:12 am
Iditarod Musher Zack Steer (Bib # 7) arrived in Nome Alaska at 3:46 am (Alaska Time) with ten dogs, capturing third place. The thirty three year olds’ surprising run was strong on the Gold Coast as he continued challenging the front of the pack from Unalakleet to Nome. Steer completed the 77 mile run from White Mountain to Front Street in just a little under ten hours. The Sheep Mountain Alaska musher finished the race to Nome in nine days, twelve hours, forty six minutes and seven seconds.
Date: March 14, 2007 at 9:11 am
A number of Iditarod XXXV race fans were up early to welcome four time Iditarod Champion Martin Buser (Bib # 19) to Nome Alaska at 4:07 am (Alaska Time). Buser arrived in Nome with 10 dogs on his team. The Big Lake Alaska musher stayed at the front of the pack throughout the race making it to Nome in nine days, thirteen hours, seven minutes and four seconds. Buser led the race coming out of Rainy Pass and arriving first in McGrath on the banks of the Kuskokwim River. He and four time Iditarod Champion Jeff King were neck and neck through the early part of race.
Date: March 14, 2007 at 9:06 am
Four time Iditarod Champion Jeff King (Bib # 31) arrived in Nome Alaska at 6:05 am (Alaska Time) with 10 dogs on his team. The Denali Alaska musher led midway through the race and was the first to arrive in Unalakleet Alaska on the Gold Coast. King was the 2006 Iditarod Champion. King made the trek from Safety to Nome in Three hours and twenty three minutes.
Date: March 14, 2007 at 9:04 am
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.
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Date: March 13, 2007 at 11:30 pm
NOME, Alaska — Paul Gebhardt has twice been the bridesmaid in the Last Great Race, but the Kasilof, Alaska, musher wasn’t complaining one bit as he crossed the finish line two hours, 20 minutes behind the winner, and Gebhardt’s former training partner, Lance Mackey.
Gebhardt got a big hug from his wife, Evy, and was thronged by hometown fans at the finish. The 2007 champion Lance Mackey also stayed awake long enough to shake Gebhardt’s hand.
“Heck of a race,” Mackey said. “It was fun,” Gebhardt replied. Gebhardt went on to describe Mackey as “a very different dog driver. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to have a better team,” then he pointed out that Mackey is the first musher ever to win the Yukon Quest and Iditarod in the same year. “You’ve got to admit, he’s like the Dale Earnhardt of dog racing,” Gebhardt said.
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Date: March 13, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Lance Mackey soars to the top of the 2007 Iditarod
NOME, Alaska — Eight-year-old Lance Mackey stood in the finish chute to see his father win the 1978 Iditarod by a nose over Rick Swenson. The memory burned in his heart as he grew. It ate at him.
Today, the younger Mackey finally lived out the culmination of his unlikely dream to follow in his father’s sled tracks. The 2007 champion, and the only back-to-back Yukon Quest and Iditarod champion in the history of distance sled dog racing, was led up the chute by a strong team of nine dogs, his hands pointing at lucky bib 13 as he jogged up and bear-hugged his brother, Jason.
“It’s unreal,” were the first audible words that the cheering crowd heard. Mackey took extra time shaking hands with people he knew circling the finish chute.
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Date: March 13, 2007 at 11:00 am
Mackey leaves White Mountain; Buser, Steer pull in
WHITE MOUNTAIN, Alaska — Puffy-eyed and cheeks rosy from exposure to too much cold air and wind, Paul Gebhardt and Lance Mackey were still cracking smiles when they awoke from four hours of deep slumber to learn they were still the only two mushers here.
The two former neighbors, now first and second in the waning moments of the 2007 Iditarod, joked together and talked about dogs, and the race. As Gebhardt went outside to give his team a last snack, Mackey was gearing up to leave. Mackey has a two and a half hour lead, which is insurmountable barring a major setback.
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