NOME — It’s been 14 years since Joe Runyan last ran a dog team up Front Street in Nome, but there was the former champion with a strong, 14-dog team trotting smartly in unison right up the chute and under the burled arch. Under the thick fur ruff and dark glasses, he busted loose with that trademark Runyan grin and made one point crystal clear:

“This may have been the last Iditarod with Joe,” he said. It had been a physically tough race, but Runyan, 59, said he felt a lot better after a full night’s sleep in Nome. The real reason he won’t be back is simple: He doesn’t have a dog team.

 

Runyan stepped on the runners of Tim Osmar’s team in early January, taking over Osmar’s role as visual interpreter for Rachael Scdoris, who is legally blind and enters races with cooperation from another musher. The pair travel together, with the seeing musher up front and calling back about hazards. Osmar successfully helped Scdoris achieve her dream in 2006, but he broke his leg (shattered would be a more accurate word) while fighting a wildfire that threatened his home in the Kenai Peninsula’s Caribou Hills last summer. That break has been slow to heal, so Runyan came out of retirement.

The Scdoris and Runyan race has been the subject of a documentary planned for the Discovery Channel, and you might think the project would be a failure once Scdoris scratched at Koyuk. But Runyan said Scdoris made the right decision for her dogs and the footage will show that once the program airs. They agreed that Runyan would continue, and Joe’s team of young Osmar dogs cruised on to Elim, then White Mountain and the final 77-mile push to Nome.

The last leg gave Runyan plenty of time to reminisce. Runyan was an innovator in the late 1980s and alry ’90s when he and a newcomer named Doug Swingley first made the bold move to run their teams all the way to Ruby before taking a 24-hour layover. The plan didn’t work for them that year, but it paved the way for other mushers who’ve tried the same tack over the years since.

At the finish line, Runyan said he learned more from Rachael than she learned from him.

Right up to the final 500 yards, the dogs moved like little pistons, which had been Runyan’s goal all along. His mission was to keep them trotting, not loping, at a steady, easy pace. The approach really helped Osmar, who flew to Nome and got to watch many of his younger stars at the finish line. “It’s very nice to watch them come in like a freight train,” he said. “Now if a guy could do it in nine days, it would be wonderful.”

Runyan finished in 13 days and 52 minutes, good for 61st place in this year’s Iditarod. Lance Mackey’s winning time was 9 days, 11 hours and 46 minutes.