King Comes in Second

Jeff King was the second musher to arrive into Nome this morning, crossing under the burled arch at 4:05am. King had been purposefully nipping at the heels of Lance Mackey for over half the race allowing Mackey to break trail as the two mushers worked their way to Nome. Jeff did pull ahead of Lance between Kaltag and Unalakleet and King won the Wells Fargo “Gold Coast Award” for a record-tying 5th time, King remarked that there was another record he was hoping to tie at 5 wins this year.

King is one of a handful of successful mushers who haven’t been able to bring home the record-tying 5th Iditarod Championship…. The late Susan Butcher was on her way in 1989, but similar to this year wasn’t able to hold the lead to Joe Runyan after leaving White Mountain. Martin Buser, and the recently retired Doug Swingley have also attempted a 5th championship.

Probably the most defining moment of King’s race came just over 24 hours ago when he arrived into Elim three minutes behind Mackey - both mushers headed inside the checkpoint to take a few hours break and when Lance put his gear down to take a nap, so did King. Mackey didn’t fall asleep but waited for King, and after only 1 and a half hours rest, Mackey headed out onto the trail while King slept back in the checkpoint. King woke up less than an hour later and gave chase to Mackey, but was never able to catch up.

Audio from KICY of Lance Mackey winning his 2nd consecutive Iditarod is being uploaded right now and will be posted soon, along with Photos taken by Iditablog photographer Chris Carlson.