NOME — Ramey Smyth out-hustled some of the best hustlers in the business to finish a career high third place in the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race — a feat all the more impressive because of the immense skills and powerful teams of all the mushers fighting for position this year.

He barely avoided becoming part of one of the most exciting finishes in Iditarod history, between Ken Anderson and Martin Buser, who finished gasping and sweaty, a mere 44 seconds apart under the burled arch.

Smyth, who described himself and the others as “animals” when it comes to finishing hard, crossed the finish line shortly before 10 a.m. with a run time of 9 days, 18 hours and 52 minutes, just about six hours behind Jeff King, who finished an hour and change behind Lance Mackey.

Smyth battled three other mushers well-known for their talent in finishing races — Anderson, who’s a skilled stage racer; Buser, the four-time Iditarod champion known for racing some of the fastest sled dogs in distance mushing; and Hans Gatt, a stage racing legend before dominating the Yukon Quest in recent years. All four mushers are “animals,” in the best sense of the word.

But Smyth was able to pull away and maintain a 20 minute edge on Anderson and Buser, despite packing one of his nine dogs part of the way from Safety, with 22 miles to go. Smyth typically posts one of the fastest run times from Safety to Nome, dominating the Nome Kennel Club prize to the top 20 musher who does it the fastest. He’s been known to do it in roughly two hours, but it took three this year, no doubt because he had the extra weight of one dog in the sled.

Smyth had few words at the finish, except to say the race this year was a slog through soft snow and, in order to finish this high, he had to just keep working no matter how hard it got. “It was a long, hard trudge,” he said.

Smyth keeps a small kennel and runs on a tight budget, using older sleds and no frills equipment, but he has a lifetime of experience, as does his brother Cim, sons of early Iditarod mushers Bud Smyth and Lolly Medley.

His main lead dog, Babe, who is 10 years old and going on 11, finished yet another Iditarod in lead. That could be a record for oldest lead dog in a top five dog team. Dogs that age typically are slowing down and heading up puppy teams at this stage of their career.