NOME — The youngest woman in this year’s Iditarod crossed the finish line with her leaders this morning to the cheers of a large crowd gathered around the burled arch that marks the end of the race. Making it even more special for 18-year-old Melissa Owens, she was home.

Owens lives in Nome, growing up here in a dog mushing family. Her father, Mike, ran the race twice when Melissa was still in diapers and has been involved with the race since, whether it’s helping coordinate support in Nome or, currently, as a board member. “She is an Iditarod kid,” Mike Owens said.

 

“It is an emotional time for me because this truly is a dream come true,” he added, a faraway look in his eye as he sat on the snow with his back against a support beam of the burled arch. “She has lived a dream. She probably wishes the finish line was in Teller.” (Teller is about 75 miles away.)

Owens was the 30th musher out of a record field of 95 who started this year’s race, putting her in the last paying position. She’ll get a trophy in addition to the coveted finisher’s belt buckle and a little over $1,000 in prize money.

The Iditarod has been a dream of Owens since she was a little girl. She couldn’t wait until her 14th birthday so that she could run the Junior Iditarod, a race she won two years ago. Owens, known for being unflappable and determined (like a lot of Nome’s children), needed all of her character to deal with the journey that led her from Willow across 1,000 miles of remote Alaska back to her home town.

She grabbed her lead dogs’ tug lines the final half mile through town because the dogs were a little bewildered by the cars, people and buildings after going for weeks seeing only country. “They saw vehicles and thought, ‘Oh we’ll sleep,’ or ‘maybe they have food,’ ” she said at the finish line.

Asked if this will be an annual event for her, Owens, replied, “We’ll see.” It usually takes a little recovery time before mushers find themselves unconsciously planning for the next year’s race.