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The AAS was won last night by 2004 Iditarod winner, Mitch Seavey. Mitch beat 4X Iditarod winner, Jeff King, by 10 minutes; Lance Mackey finished 3rd, and Sonny Lindner 4th.

Seavey's time broke the record set in 1910, by the aptly named John "Iron Man" Johnson, of 74 hours, for the Nome-to-Candle and back, 408 mile race, by over 12 hours.

Seavey has had a very profitable racing season..... He won the Kusko 300 in January ($20,000), placed 7th on the Iditarod ($48,000), and, winner takes all on the AAS ($100,000) for a total of $168,000. Not too shabby. Congratulations to Mitch.

Alaskan Huskies are the best endurance athletes in the world.

A second to those congrats! He came from behind after hanging in the shadows for quite a ways I understand. Sometimes the advantage goes to those who are the best dog psychologists. That's a factor that is very easily overlooked by the on-looking armchair lap-doggers. Every athlete has to have their head in the game to pull off a big win. Those doggies are truly great athletes - and probably enjoy the sport a whole lot more than even the most avid humans.

Oh No!~ you have that take all wrong! Those dogs would rather lay around fat dumb and happy, for 8 to 12 years in a heated environment, doing nothing, than getting out every day or so and running miles, then during the winter, running more miles at temps they are comfortable in in their heavy coats.. You can see how disappointed they are at the start.... they just walk out of the chute, heads hanging. It takes whips, cattle prods and beatings to get them to run trail.

Damn those mushers, anyway!!!

dang las, I believe they done and went and converted you.


wonder if it could be all the lead stained meat you've ingested?

I still think we should give Mackey some propps.

A snowmachiner collided with his team and one of his best dogs, Zorro, was really messed up and is getting flown to Seattle.


You have to wonder if Mackey was purposely whacked.

Sincerely,

Thomas

That happened and he still finished third.

Snow machines and dog teams have a long and sad history of collisions on the Iditarod, as well as other races. The culprit is almost always alcohol. Drunks on snow machines have killed and injured many sled dogs over the years. Lance was lucky to be able to continue and finish the AAS. I carry a .44 to protect my dog team from moose and other threats. If a drunk runs over my dogs, I won't kill him, but I will kill his snogo, and leave him on foot. Without their machine, drunks aren't dangerous.... they're just pathetic.

Lance's attitude was a lot more forgiving than mine. He's a first-rate sportsman.

I can like the sentiment...

Heard on the radio that the sled driver was indeed drunk. He came forward to accept responsibility. Zorro survived. He won't be racing anymore (I think this was to be his last race). Zorro will be left to servicing the ladies.

I don�t think there was any malaise in the accident. It was most likely a case of a sno-go running too fast for the conditions with a driver unaware of what he did.

I live north of where the race was held in Kotzebue Alaska and we have many mushers up here training all of the time. I have a cabin up in Noatak National Park and Ed Iten Has his kennel about 15 miles to the east of us. We see his teams on the trail all of the time along with Louis Nelson and a few others. There is many times in the Arctic night that we will come up on a team in the dark and not see them until you are right on top of them. We have to be looking around all of the time so I just don�t think it was done on purpose.

I would like to congratulate all of the Kotzebue mushers on their seasons. All of our teams had a tough season. Last year we had 4 teams from Kotzebue in the top 10 at the Iditarod and in the money. Many of these guys don�t have the big money endorsements and the payday supports their efforts. Only a few of these guys get Cabelas to pay their bills. Hats off to these guys, tough way to make a living!

Walt
www.northwestalaskayahoo.com
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