The number of mushers in Nome has reached 36 as of late Thursday afternoon. Folks in the convention center, also known as the Mini, are chatting with mushers, collecting autographs and waiting for Richard Beneville’s Robert Service reading including “The Cremation of Sam McGee.” It’s an annual happening that is much anticipated and well attended.
The most recent siren we heard announced the arrival of Karin Hendrickson. From experience, Karin knows she’d be miserable without dogs. She saw her first sled dog as an Iditarod volunteer in March of 2002. She sold everything and moved to Alaska to handle and learn about the world’s greatest athletes. After a couple of years she tried to quit her dog habit. That didn’t last long and in 2002 she began to build her own team. Racing was the furthest thing form her mind and Iditarod wasn’t certainly not on the horizon. She admits she doesn’t know what set the train to Iditarod in motion but just two years later, she found herself qualified and signed up for the Last Great Race. This is her 6th Iditarod and 4th time she’s made Nome. Ten days, 22 hours and 23 minutes is a person best. Waiting in the chute for Karin to arrive was a cheese burger carefully kept warm and lovingly delivered by her mom.
Danny Seavey made the arch 6 minutes ahead of Karin and until his bag check was complete they shared space under the arch. Multiple generations of the Seavey family greeted Danny who was wearing running shoes and trotting along with his team on the trail in from Safety. An injured Matt Giblin asked Danny to run his team. Danny came up from Florida to get on the runners. Seavey laughed about the conversation he had with his dad about running Giblin’s team. Mitch assured Danny it would be an easy job – it’s a puppy team, you won’t be racing, you’ll be letting them experience the trail. As it turned out, nothing about the 2014 Iditarod Trail was easy. Be it the trail through the Gorge or the winds near Shaktoolik and everything between, this race challenged the most experienced. Danny earned the finisher’s belt buckle in 2001, ran in 2006 and here he is again with a personal best time of 10 days, 22 hours and 17 minutes for 35th place.
The Mackey name is sort of “household” when it comes to the burled arch in Nome. Jason came in with a dog team that was happy and spirited. Their tails were flagging the whole length of Front Street. Mackey claimed 34th place with an average speed of 3.69 mph and a time of 10 days, 21 hours and 29 minutes. Jason praised his dogs saying they’ve experienced more on this Iditarod trail than in all their training and previous races. Figuratively speaking, it was a race that separated the men from the boys and the dogs from the puppies. The first Iditarod Jason remembers is the spectacular 1978 finish between Rick Swenson and his father, Dick Mackey. Since then two of his brothers have been crowned Iditarod Champions, Rick in 1983 and Lance in 2007, 08, 09 and 2010. Being the youngest brother and youngest son, Jason is hungry for Iditarod Gold. There’s a magic formula Jason will have to figure out. His Dad won on his 6th try, wearing bib #13. Rick won on his 6th try, wearing bib # 13. Lance won on his 6th try, wearing bib #13. Bibs these days are luck of the draw unlike in 2007 when Lance chose bib #13. Lance camped at Iditarod HQ for a week prior to musher signup so that he would be the first to signup therefore the first to choose a bib number. Jason has completed the race in 2004, 08 and 2014. Mackey scratched last year due to a nasty intestinal issue. A couple of years and he’ll be wanting bib 13.
Justin Savidis and his team of Snowhook Kennel dogs made the burled arch in 33rd place with a time of 10 days, 21 hours and 18 minutes. The Snowhook dogs stopped part way down Front Street right in front of the Husky Restaurant on their way to the finish line. Wonder what they were planning to order off the menu? It was Justin’s wife, Rebecca who came to the rescue. She jogged down the street to the stalled restaurant goes, clapped her hands and called them. They recognized her in a flash and as she jogged back to the arch, they followed. Justin carried a coin along the trail for Tom, an Insider crew member. Tom couldn’t be here last year due to the death of his father. Justin gave the coin back to Tom under the arch and suggested he touch the arch with it. Tom asked Justin if he would do the honors and practically speaking, Justin was taller. Justin went forward, unclipped his leader and carried the dog back to the arch. With the dog in one arm, he reached up with a paw and the coin in the other hand and touched the cross piece of the arch. Thank you Justin for assisting Tom in honoring his father. Savidis has been a regular in Iditarod since 2010. This race is a personal best in both place and time for the Snowhook team.
