NOME, Alaska -- Dallas Seavey came from behind to capture his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race title in three years early Tuesday morning, mushing his team of seven dogs through a windstorm that knocked one leader, Jeff King, out of the race and prompted another, Aliy Zirkle, to hole up in the last checkpoint for more than two hours.
Seavey, 26, jogged beside his sled down Nome's Front Street to help his dogs. At one point, he glanced over his shoulder, thinking his dad, defending champion Mitch Seavey, was gaining on him.
After crossing the finish line in record time at 4:04 a.m., Seavey sat on the back of his sled and leaned his head on his handlebar, exhausted.
"How did you do it?" a videographer asked.
"What'd I do?"
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"You just won the Iditarod."
"What? I thought that was my dad behind me. Where's Jeff and Aliy?"
King was out of the race, having scratched shortly before midnight when howling winds blew his sled off the trail. He told race officials he spent 2½ hours with the dogs, stalled a few miles outside Safety -- the final checkpoint before Nome - before waving down a snowmachiner for help.
Zirkle decided to stay in Safety after snowmachiners told her the wind had flipped their sleds and was getting worse.
"What's a gal to do?" she said.
Seavey beat Zirkle by less than three minutes, ending a frenzied night of racing that saw the lead go from King to Zirkle to Seavey in less than three hours.
It was the second-closest finish in the Iditarod's 42-year history. The only closer finish was Dick Mackey's one-second 1978 win over Rick Swenson.
Seavey and his team broke the Iditarod speed record, finishing the 1,000-mile race from Willow to Nome in 8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, 19 seconds. He shaved more than five hours off John Baker's 2011 record of 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, 39 seconds. Zirkle and Mitch Seavey, who finished third about 3½ hours after his son, also were ahead of Baker's time.
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Since Baker's victory, the Iditarod has belonged to the Seavey family. Dallas became the race's youngest winner in 2012, and Mitch became the race's oldest winner last year when he won his second title. During that same period, second place has belonged to Zirkle, a 44-year-old Two Rivers musher and the fan favorite.
Zirkle, driving a team of 10 dogs, finished with a huge smile on her face and waved to fans who were chanting her name even as Seavey approached the finish line.
"I know all the women are going for Aliy," Seavey said at a post-race press conference, "and probably half the men."
Northland musher still in running for top rookie
Musher Nathan Schroeder of Chisholm --competing in his first Iditarod after winning the Northland's John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon three times on Tuesday evening remained in a tight race to be the first rookie to finish.
Schroeder and his team of 12 dogs left the Elim checkpoint, about 120 miles from the finish, at 9:28 a.m. -- one minute behind fellow rookie Abbie West and her team of eight, and in 20th place of the 50 teams still on the trail. Schroeder and West have been trading the lead rookie spot for much of the race.
Schroeder arrived at Elim about four hours behind West, but took a shorter break to make up the difference. He should cross the finish line in Nome sometime today; check duluthnewstribune.com for updates.
