Alaska born and raised, Lance Mackey, 49, grew up with dogs and Iditarod. He started his current kennel in Kasilof, Alaska, in 1999 and entered his first Iditarod in 2001, finishing 36th. He spent all of 2002 and 2003 recovering from stage four throat cancer, and returned to Iditarod in 2004 where he traveled the entire trail with his younger brother and two puppy teams. In 2005, he entered both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod, racing both form 2005 – 2009, and winning each four years in a row (and winning both back to back in 2007 and 2008.) Since 2011, he says, “My race record has been dull and not much fun; my last Iditarod was in 2016. It ended in Galena, and I haven’t been the same since. So for me, 2019 was about having fun, enjoying the checkpoints and the people of our state and its sport, about my dogs, fans, sponsors, friends and my family. Lance thanks his fellow mushers for nominating him for the Most Inspirational Musher Award last year. He received a free entry for this year’s Iditarod so “I guess it means they want to see me out there again. Lance is a member of Mush with PRIDE, North Pole Speedway and Alaska Race Way Park. He says his hobbies are Legends car racing, fishing, camping and being dad. He is the father of one adult daughter, Alana, and he and Jenne have two children, Atigun 3½ and Lozen, 1 ½.