Iditarod Winner - Mackey

Well Lance Mackey did it again! He was the first to arrive in Nome. He crossed the finish line with a strong string of 11 dogs at 2:46 a.m. March 12, winning the Iditarod in 9 days, 11 hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds. This the second year in a row that Mackey won the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.
Mackey with his lead dog Hansom. Can you tell this man loves his dogs?
Mackey and King were pretty close for a good portion of the race. Mackey set a trap for King in the village of Elim. Here's a short news clip of what happened:

The old Mackey magic was back. They trotted smoothly up to Elim. There, he set a trap for King. Mackey had his cooker going and was feeding his dogs when King pulled in, just three minutes behind him. King, who’d been exhausted since Kaltag, fed his team and lay down for a quick nap. Mackey sprung up when he heard the first snore and snuck out. King jolted awake 30 minutes later, figured out Mackey was gone, and got his own team up and out of the checkpoint. But he’d lost an hour on his rival by then.

On the ice out of Elim, hoping his ruse worked, Mackey wondered. “If this actually works, it would be one of the coolest things I’ve done in the race,” he said. “I don’t know how else to out-run him.”

I guess it is pretty common in the racing world to do things like that. At one checkpoint King fell asleep with his feet on Mackey's boots. That was the way he knew when Mackey was getting ready to leave the checkpoint. I believe it was Mackey's brother that in one race left a cooler behind in a ruse that he would be back in the bunkhouse to get it a few minutes later... by the time the other mushers realized they had been had. There are some pretty interesting articles on the race... and after reading the majority of them, I'd say these guys are pretty great people as well as excellant mushers.
(Photos were taken from Alaska Daily News.)
More updates:
Yooper Ed is currently in 30th and Jake is in 63rd. Rick Holt is in 58th.