Welcome to Front Street, Nome.
This is Iditarod 1978.
There's about 400 people here in Front Street, Nome.
Two mushers, Rick Swenson and Dick Mackey are less than a
mile from the finish line, the end of the Iditarod trail.
Oh, I can see the teams. They are neck and neck by golly.
From here Chris you should have an awfully
good view from your vantage point.
Dick Mackey right now is ahead.
He is pumping furiously.
The dogs are moving very well down the front street.
Dick Mackey is coming along.
Tom, can you see them any better now than I?
Here comes the first dog, the first lead dog, down the jute.
And that indeed is number 13; 13 is Dick Mackey.
They're both running.
Rick Swenson maybe 4 feet behind Mackey.
The dogs look awfully good. Here comes Dick Mackey.
The team is pulling up almost neck and neck.
And Mackey just, oh my God.
Dick Mackey collapsed. There's a crowd of people around Dick.
Mostly photographers. His son is with him right now.
Dick Mackey, the winner of the 1978 Iditarod Trail Race.
Official time is one second apart between the two racers.
It was 14 days, 18 hours, 52 minutes, 24 seconds.
Just finished 1,049 miles of an incredibly difficult trail.
Lucky number 13. He did it.
[music]
I remember like it was yesterday.
At 8 years old seeing dad win really, really stuck.
All I wanted to do was be like my dad.
I couldn't imitate him enough.
3,2,1 Go!
We're back at it again. Wearing bib number 5, Lance Mackey.
Back in 1978, father Dick won the Iditarod by one second.
Lance Mackey is on his way to Nome.
That's it. Hut, hut. That's it gentlemen.
When I was young people would ask me
'Are you related to Dick Mackey?'
It was a pretty big deal.
Good job guys.
Winning the Iditarod was definitely my ultimate goal.
It's a thousand miles over some
of Mother Nature's worst terrain.
I just wanted to accomplish what very few people have.
The Iditarod is a 1,049 mile sled dog race
across the arctic wilderness of Alaska.
More people have summitted Mt. Everest than
have successfully completed the Iditarod.
In 2013 Lance Mackey attempted his 12th Iditarod.
Hut.
That's it. Good boys.
Welcome to Nikolai Lance.
Morning.
I'll check your gear after you park.
That's beautiful. Hut, hut. Alright.
Lance Mackey is currently in 2nd place out of 66 mushers.
Lance Mackey is 2013 Iditarod. You're second into Nikolai.
Are you feeling good coming in here?
I'm kind of shocked at where we're
at and the way they're performing.
Have some straw. It's much warmer.
They're young yeah.
So I'm just driving this puppy team
according to what I think they're capable.
Ah, shit.
Knowing the trail that you have left
ahead of you, what's your plan?
What's your goal then for the rest of 2013 Iditarod?
Right at the moment I'm thinking
one checkpoint at a time, one run at a time.
You know? And just kind of trying
to stay, you know, at the moment.
Not thinking too far ahead.
Whether we get there first or twenty-first remains to be seen.
It looks pretty good at the moment.
Lance Mackey in Nikolai. Reporting for
Iditarod 41; I'm Laureli Kinneen.
Hut. Come on there. Hut.
That's it. Alright. Alright. That a boys'.
I tell people all the time when they'd ask me
'When did you start racing?'
I say 'Before I was born.'
He really did start mushing before he was born.
I was 7 months pregnant with him when
I was in the North American Race.
He had his little foot right under my ribcage.
And every time I'd kick, he'd kick.
And he was just kicking his way out.
He wasn't very big when he was born.
Oh, what a little terror in there.
Lance grew up in a dog lot.
When he was old enough to carry one
of these little kid's beach pails
and a little shovel he'd be out there and he'd give them food,
or he'd haul water or whatever.
As soon as he was old enough I built Lance his own
sled and sewed him up his harnesses and stuff.
He entered his first race and he won it. I mean it was great.
Every waking moment it was something to do with dogs.
Lance, are you going to boot them all?
Yeah.
5,4,3,2,1 Go.
Lance Mackey is on the trail.
Finish line will be where the banner is hanging up there.
Other mushers always at the house.
Our house was a congregating point.
And he'd sit there and listen to all of this
conversation about dogs.
It's hard to be in a room like that full of people
and not feel the excitement that they're feeling.
Or the energy that they're feeling.
And I want to be a part of that.
At the time I didn't know the significance
of who was in my living room.
Joe Reddington Sr. was at our house a lot.
That was Grandpa Joe.
The Iditarod was started because of
a gentleman named Joe Reddington
who saw the sled dog disappearing
from the native villages of Alaska.
And he didn't want it.
He didn't want the sled dog to disappear from the state.
And so he started this race to make
sure that those villages would keep the
sled dogs intact and that Alaska wouldn't
lose that part of their history.
Joe and I wrote down what we thought the rules would be.
The first one was that the race shall start on the first
Saturday of March at 10:00
in the morning regardless of weather.
The Iditarod is a thousand miles.
And it starts in Anchorage and it goes all the way to Nome.
It goes up over the Alaska range some of the
tallest mountains and peaks in the world,
it goes through the cold bank of the interior before
it hits the Yukon River and then the Artic Coast;
the Bering Sea Coast.
The rules are pretty bare bone jungle rules.
No assistance. You can come into villages.
You can take advantage of hospitality,
but there's no pit crew.
The winner will generally do it in less than 9 days now.
With mushers out on the trail for 14-15 days.
I've seen broken bones out there.
These people defy common sense.
They defy the average laws of toughness.
The very first year they didn't know
if anybody would even get to Nome.
You know?
And when they left we didn't know
if we'd ever see them again.
I'm proud of the fact that my dad was
involved putting this event together.
This is Lance's second Junior Iditarod. He is 15 years old.
He's one of the famous Mackey Iditarod clan.
All Lance ever knew was Iditarod. That's all he knew.
Lance Mackey 1986 Junior Iditarod.
Lance, congratulations.
You did your best boy.
Don't let nobody get in front of you.
Alright. Smile. The Mackey boys.
Those two were always up to something.
What one didn't think of, the other did.
We couldn't get away with nothing
You know they always say 'Mom knows everything.' Well,
you best believe they do.
She would catch us doing things sometimes
that we weren't supposed to be doing.
Sure enough, here she'd come. It's mom.
I started flying when I was big enough to reach the pedals.
Dick bought me an airplane for Christmas.
I just about killed myself in it.
I was safe. I mean I never cracked one up.
I didn't, you know, I never had
I went through the trees one time.
Mom's always been more or less a tomboy.
She always had short hair. Kind of looked like a guy.
She had no problem digging ditches and
banging nails or whatever.
She used to take us down to the airport
and just watch planes fly.
Landing and, you know, touch and go's and all that.
And you know our big thing was 'What kind of plane is that?'
I remember one day she took us down to watch the airplanes.
It was odd to see mom drinking beer
at, you know, 10:00 in the morning.
And driving for one. You know?
So something was up. It was real quiet.
I was sitting there watching these damn airplanes take off.
And she broke it to us that her and dad was splitting up.
He wouldn't be coming home.
Dad and I just ain't - dad's not going to live here no more.
Well, what did we do? You know?
How come dad ain't going to live with
us no more? Don't he like us no more?
You know? And they were little.
They don't understand. Hell, I didn't understand.
I had been with Dick since I was 19 years old.
What the Hell am I going to do now?
I didn't know.
I just knew that my kids were going to be with me. Period.
I felt like my dad abandoned us.
You know? He'd send money for dog
food or whatever occasionally.
I say occasionally. He probably did it every month.
Mom used it for bills if need be, you know?
Hut.
It was just a struggle.
Hut.
That's it, hut.
They're coming.
There he is. Woohoo.
Welcome to McGrath man.
How's it going?
Pretty good.
Thanks for your help out here again.
You bet.
Hut. Let him go. Let him go. Alright. Hut.
Hey, get up there.
Let me reach down there for a second.
There we go.
Listen to me boys.
Alright. Hut. Hut.
I wished I'd a spent more time with the kids.
Hell, I was off work at-
You get home from work, ya eat, then you go run dogs.
Okay?
Then you feed them, then you go bed.
Then you get up the next day.
When were you going to spend time with your kids?
Weekends? Okay. And what did you do then? Dogs.
You want to be a part of it?
Come on kid. You know?
That's just the way it was.
I knew the personalities, and quirks, and in and outs
of my dogs better than I understood my children.
My dad was 80 years old before I
went fishing or hunting with him.
Living in the state of Alaska?
Are you kidding me?
Soon as my kids were old enough to walk
I bought them a fishing pole and gun.
We went camping, we go hiking, we go rafting.
You know?
I had to go Montana, buy my dad a fishing pole,
take him down to a river that didn't even have a fish in it
to get a picture of him with a fishing pole, with me.
I mean that -
you know?
And you know what he said?
I reminded him of that not too long
ago and you know what he told me?
'I never been much of a fisherman.'
I don't give a shit if he ever fished a day in his life.
Teach your damn kids to fish. You know?
I still don't know him the way most
kids should know their father.
You could sit here and tell me that my dad was a good guy
and he's just trying to make a living and providing.
You know whatever the case may be.
But none of that stuff ever registered to me.
Hut.
I think some of the things I did back then
was basically to try to get his attention.
The way Lance dealt was 'I'll just turn into a little jerk.'
You know? Because now I'm pissed off at the entire world.
I'm mad at mom, I'm mad at dad.
I'm mad at life.
Hut. Hut.
Rebel is an understatement. I went crazy.
Doing stuff no parent would brag about their kid doing.
Come on, Hut, Hut.
There was many weekends I’d get put in jail for minor consuming.
Drunk in public.
I can get in trouble and moms going to bail me out.
I'll never forget one time they called her and she's like
'Let him sit there. I can't take off work. I'll be
there if I can get there, when I can get there.'
And they come back and they told me that.
'Sorry, you ain't leaving today.'
'What?'
'Your mom said she ain't coming.'
And I'm like 'Bullshit. Mom's coming to get me.
She always does.'
'Not this time boy.' You know?
Three or four attempts at high school and still a freshman.
My mom knew that there was something
going on. Didn't know exactly what.
So she put me in a drug rehab.
And the drug rehab kicked me out.
Hut. Yep, yep. Come on here. Hut. Yep.
Get up.
Good to see you man.
Good to see you.
Win yourself some gold?
Yeah. This is worth the effort I think.
You know the dogs deserve it more than I do.
Holy cow. He's been in here about four
hours now. He's still trying to perform
but he was just- come here.
He wasn't so enthused about this whole mess.
I think maybe just a good meal, a good rest
and he might just be a whole different dog again.
You're not sure about this stuff are ya?
I got to run this team according to what it's capable of doing.
Not worry about what's going on behind me.
And if I happen to get to Nome and
there's nobody in front of me? I won.
Lance congratulations on being the first to
reach the halfway point on the 2013 Iditarod.
On behalf of GCI and Iditarod committee it's my pleasure to
present you with this year's $3000 worth of gold nuggets.
In addition to the gold nuggets you'll get to keep this trophy.
And we will also add your name to the permanent halfway
point winners list which is in the Iditarod gallery.
So-
Making sure you got it all out of there.
You get to take it home. Congratulations.
That's awesome. Thank you.
Much as I'd love to stand around and count
them I'm going to leave that up to you.
I'm going to take a little, I don't know, catnap.
We'll see you gentleman shortly.
You earned it.
Thank you much.
- Good luck the rest of the way. - See you soon
Good night lance.
I've only slept one hour since the starting line.
I don't know how people do this shit every year.
Oh, that feels so good.
Yep. Haw. Haw.
That's it. Alright. Alright.
Thatta boys'. Good job guys.
Good boys. Good boys.
There. Mmm. Look at that.
Oh, that looks good.
How about you Reverend?
Who you want to win?
I thought you were going to win.
That's a good answer.
Oh yeah. Nice.
They stopped more on that run.
And I stopped the whole damn race combined.
Okay. Good enough for me.
I drop a dog in Iditarod.
And when I leave he's the only one barking and screaming to go.
Everybody else was just, you know,
got up and we marched out of there.
Yeah.
I had to- before I even left I went
over and said goodbye to him again.
Just I'm sorry.
You're the one that told me you wanted to stay.
Now you're tel- you know? You're here.
Now you're telling me you want to go.
Yeah. Racing anxiety.
I was - he stood up the whole time.
From the time I dropped him, until
the time I left. He never laid down.
I felt so bad.
What was his name?
Doug.
Oh man. Get some sleep if you can.
I don't know.
I don't think I'll be here long enough to sleep.
When I was 15 mom was frustrated and over her head on what to do.
So she thought it would be a great idea to
send me to my dad's truck stop in Coldfoot.
Coldfoot is 65 miles above the
Arctic Circle on the Dalton Highway.
And its claim to fame is the Northern
Most Truck Stop in the World.
I had driven all the way up from Wasilla to
distribute these bear proof garbage cans.
I said 'You can't even get a cup of coffee on this road.'
A friend of mine owned a school bus made into a kitchen.
And I said
'What do you think if we was to take
that school bus of yours and go up
there and we just sell hot dogs, and
soup and whatever for the summer?'
and we pulled in there just dead tired.
Got a few hours' sleep.
Woke up the next morning and there was
100 trucks parked in that gravel pit.
Wanted to know when they could get something to eat.
And I went 'Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.'
And we were off and running.
We developed a little town.
We had a post office. We had a store.
We had a bar. We had overnight facilities.
Not to mention a restaurant for truckers and etc.
By the time I got up there it was still a work in process.
He's right in the middle of building a business
with 50 employees or however many he had.
And all of a sudden he's got to be a dad.
No, I was more like another employee.
500 trucks through there a day.
I learned a lot of things but I was also unguided.
I'd do whatever I want pretty much.
When you're trying to build something like Coldfoot,
you know, it's 24/7.
You're just going
And so as long as we were under the radar we were golden.
I would go out with a bucket of water and a squeegee when
they pulled in and washed their windows and their lights.
And I found out which one would give me a Bud.
Or something else.
Pretty soon I'm spending all my money doing
the same shit that I was doing in Wasilla.
Just took me a little longer to figure
this whole system out. You know?
Dad was just getting into the tour companies running up there.
And I remember him offering me a job as a baggage
carrier for the tourists coming off the buses.
Are you kidding me?
I would never do that. You know?
I'm a carpenter, I'm this, I'm that.
But I'm not a baggage bus boy.
He just kind of looked at me like 'I'm
handing you a start to a goldmine.
This could all be yours.'
And I just gave him the bird and packed my shit and left.
[music]
Hut. Hey. Hey.
That's it. Good boys. Alright.
That's it.
Good job guys.
How many dogs we got?
Not enough. 11.
My run from Eagle Island up to Kaltag
was as slow as I've ever done.
And for whatever reason it's the speed they want to go now.
What do you say boy? Hmm?
I've been breathing cold air on an exposed tooth.
I was eating fudge and it had nuts in it.
Not the most pleasant feeling.
At least I saved my tooth.
Almost swallowed the damn thing.
I've been dealing with my teeth for years now.
Oh, pretty hard to get to a dentist at the moment.
I just need some Advil and a tall Crown Royal.
Okay. That will work.
Ah, everything feels so good. I don't know what to tell ya.
I'm sure it probably does.
Just take one tablet by mouth six to eight hours.
Thank you.
My teeth are falling out. My toes black with frostbite.
Lance? Stu's on the phone upstairs.
He said he had something to talk to you about.
Who?
Stu.
About my other dog?
I don't know. You'll have to call him.
Hello Stu? This is Leslie from Kaltag. Is this you?
I have Lance here. Could you take the call please?
Doc, how you doin?
Yes sir. Tell me the news.
Oh boy.
Are you there?
Hello?
Lost him.
Okay. Well he's alive but barely.
He has an ulcer.
He lost a lot of blood.
There you go precious.
Can you show them how it's done Rev? Hmm?
Alright.
Hut, come on there. Hut.
Thatta boy.
Alright.
Thatta boy.
Alright.
When I left my dad's truck stop in Cold Foot I was
pretty adamant about not going back to my mom's.
I didn't have any money. None.
I had nowhere to go.
I ended up getting a job down in Kodiak.
Working in a Cannery.
My first real job.
Kodiak was one of the biggest boom fishing
towns in the state of Alaska at one time.
And yeah, there was millions of dollars coming
in and out of there in months at a time.
I ended up getting a job on the boat they called The Mariah.
I'll never forget getting out in the middle
of the Bering Sea when it's pitch
black in the middle of June.
You can hear the wind.
There's a snow squall.
The seas about 35 feet.
We're not getting a whole lot of sleep.
We are getting our asses handed to us.
I went up by the wheelhouse where nobody else could see me.
Out in the blunt of the storm. I knew I was dying.
I wasn't coming home.
And I sat there and cried.
I got my shit together and I went back down,
finished out the trip and I made like $5500 bucks that month.
I was rich.
Holy shit. $5500 bucks? For a month?
Oh, I forgot all about how miserable it was.
And how cold it was. And how tired and how hungry.
Oh, buddy. I'm going back now.
I could hardly get a dishwashing job but now I could
go and make $50,000-$60,000 grand in no time?
Then it was also justifiable to come back to town
for three days and spend $2000 bucks partying.
I was hooked right there.
It got worse and worse with the more money I made.
And the more people I met.
It wasn't a healthy lifestyle.
How you doing?
What you think Big Al?
There you go.
You a handsome boy, huh?
You a handsome boy. Yeah.
That's nice. Hold on a second.
Much easier if you do it yourself.
He just wanted some company.
When I got here Larry asked me if I wanted a piece of it.
I didn't know he was going to go make them bring it down.
Oh yeah. Just came out of the oven.
Oh, it's hot.
Doesn't get any better than that right there.
I'm not sure how many people got pizza brought to them.
It's been a Hell of a welcoming committee everywhere I go.
You're biggest fan here has got a surprise for you.
Moose jerky.
Oh, look at you.
And smoked salmon.
Thank you.
We're twins. You're missing the same tooth I am.
I don’t have many teeth as it is.
It sure sucks not having another one.
Maybe I should just go have a liquid diet.
That would take care of my tooth problem wouldn't it?
You're almost there.
It's been the slowest trip ever.
Yeah.
I mean speed wise.
I mean I don't know if we're still
on day 9 or something at the moment.
There you go.
I bet you go to sleep.
I ended up meeting this gal, Tonya.
We were both on a dead end street
with dead end relationships.
She had three small kids.
I needed somebody to help me straighten out my life.
She needed to have a father figure around for the girls.
We felt we could help each other.
Three months later we got married.
We're starting over. Let's start over somewhere
completely different where we know nobody.
Not a clue in what the hell was going to happen,
how we was going to make it even happen.
We're going to drive until we're out of money.
To a place where we don't know anybody.
That took us to the Kenai Peninsula.
We set up camp. We made a big -
more or less a house out of blue tarps.
Put the tent inside the blue tarp.
Found an old couch, an old piece of carpet at the dump.
Every single day we'd build a campfire.
That was how we cooked.
But it was going into winter.
It was getting kind of cold. We don't really have nowhere to go.
We damn sure ain't staying in a tent all winter.
I didn't have a chainsaw.
I didn't have a nail or hammer, nothing like that.
But I had a handsaw.
And I went over and started cutting trees down by hand.
We're building a house right here.
Not sure exactly what kind of house.
But we're going to have it right here. We're going to
use these stumps as part of the foundation.
I'm hustling.
Anything and everything I possibly can for a $20 bill.
I just stuffed the walls full of old
clothes that we got at Salvation Army.
I'd stop at the dumpster every single day.
I found a wood stove, I found tires.
I mean all kinds of things I could use.
Things were just flowing together.
Well, then I got this harebrained idea.
'Man, I'm going to have to get a couple of dogs again.'
It seemed like maybe a matter of a week
and I had 2, 3 dogs in the backyard.
Next thing I know I have 20 dogs now.
The dogs I got were all leftovers.
Dogs that came from the pound and off the streets.
Misfit dogs that nobody else wanted.
It was stupid cause we're barely feeding ourselves.
That winter there was a little local
sprint race track on the peninsula.
The first time I went down there the people in the neighborhood
said 'Man this is one of the most jalopy teams I ever seen.'
I had all their rejects and I ended up beating them.
I was back the next weekend, and the following weekend.
And I raced every weekend.
I told Tonya one day
'I'm going to run the Iditarod next year.'
This is the start of Iditarod 29.
Lance Mackey on his way to gold.
The first 20 years of my life I put my parents through hell.
I finally realized that life's too damn short
to be screwing up.
I want my dad and my mom to be proud of the things I'm doing.
And not be ashamed and disappointed.
They called me from McGrath.
and man he was on top of the world.
'Mom, I am having such a good time at -' you know.
On and on and on.
Just everything was good.
He got to Kaltag and he called me again.
And he said 'I don't know.
I don't know if I'm even going to make it.'
I remember going from Kaltag to Unalakleet.
And I heard these wolves behind me.
Yep. Hut. Hut. No. No.
Maybe I was hallucinating I don't know.
Cause I never did see them. I remember turning
around real fast.
My eyes went dark and I hit the deck basically.
I didn't know exactly what had happened but
I was not feeling right.
Since he was a little, little boy never ever complained.
He had strep throat one time with a 105 fever.
'How do you feel Lance?' 'Fine.' I knew something was up.
Prior to going into the race
I had this little lump on my throat.
They kept telling me that I had this abscess tooth.
Gave me some pain killers and some
antibiotics and sent me on my way.
As I continued to Nome things started growing rapidly.
It went from the size of pea to the size of
softball in just a short couple of weeks.
But I pushed on and I made it to Nome with
with this thing growing in my throat.
Not knowing that it was ultimately cancer.
The doctor he just looked at me and said 'Lance I'm sorry.
And I am telling you straight up, it's serious.'
There was really a slim chance that I would pull through this.
It was wrapped around some of the main things.
Cutting of the circulation to my brain.
You know, I mean every time I turned around they
might as well have been talking Japanese cause
I wasn't understanding these terms.
And all the things that they said was not going to happen.
Or the things they said I wouldn't be able to do.
You know? I wouldn't ever race dogs again.
I probably wouldn't have any use of my right arm.
I could be mentally challenged afterwards
because of the whole operation.
I mean all these different things were just like,
phew, right over my head.
Family and friends all got together at his moms house.
Trying to be cheerful you know?
But it was a pretty tense evening.
That was awful.
I just gave him a great big hug.
We all just kind of
went through the motions until
it was time to go to the hospital.
Nothing ever really sank in
until I was laying on that hospital bed
just fixing to go into the doors to go surgery.
And they said
'You need to say goodbye to your family.'
And, I mean I remember just starting to cry profusely.
Cause now all of sudden it made sense
that I might not be coming out of this.
The doctor finally came out and said
he looked me right in the eye and he said
'Well he ain't pretty but I got it all.'
Yep, that was relief.
The dogs, they absolutely knew that I was sick.
I missed them and I needed them.
On the weekends my wife and my kids would come to see me,
they would sneak a dog or two into the hospital.
The first time it happened I cried.
Then I couldn't wait for it to happen again.
And I cried even harder the second time.
The radiation treatments they
were fixing to give me were gonna
not only kill the saliva glands but there would never
be enough saliva produced for protection for my teeth.
And inevitably they'd be rotten and falling out.
Shit their only teeth. Take them. You know?
Main artery showing in my neck-
very, very vulnerable to scratches.
They told me flat out
'If you get a tree branch that pokes you
in the neck and pops that open you're going to bleed to death.
If you get a dog that jumps up on
you, and scratches you with a toenail
real bad, and pops that open? You're going to bleed to death.'
I was warned.
In fact I was told
not to ever race dogs again because
I'm setting myself up for,
you know, death basically.
But I'm stubborn.
If I fall off my sled I'm going to have a smile
on my face doing something I love to do.
Don't tell me I can't run the Iditarod again,
don't tell me I can't get up and walk now.
Don't tell me I can't.
No, I remember
telling him, don't worry about the dogs' dude. I got the dogs.
I'll take care of the dogs.
And he wouldn't have no part of that.
He was like 'No. I'm going to get
out of this treatment today,
and we're going to the peninsula,
and I'm going to run dogs.'
I thought he was an idiot.
But I also knew that that was really
the only thing keeping him going.
The dogs needed me.
And I needed them at the same time.
When I was a little boy my dad said 'If you
tip over you don't just let go. You hang on.
There's going to be bumps and bruises along the way.
If you fall off your sled you get
up and get back on it. Keep going.'
I drew bib number 13 in 1978.
For the '78 race.
It was my 6th attempt.
Years later here comes Lance.
Bib number 13. His 6th attempt.
Lucky position number 13. Lance Mackey.
I feel I'm indebted to my dogs.
And I'm going to do my best to pay
them back for changing my life.
Lance Mackey on his way to Nome.
I believe we got a second chance at life for a reason.
This is the reason.
Let's go.
We barely got going and we had a major setback.
Right down the creek. Right on the ice.
Did he miss it again?
Look at that ice. That's just nasty looking.
That's a tough area there.
On the second day of racing Lance broke
the runner off the back of his sled.
So basically he's on one runner,
navigating some really dicey trail.
That was a close call.
Okay I'm imagining he's really
thinking 'Man, I'm glad I made it.'
That could have been dicey.
He bounced like ricochet rabbit through the Dolsal Gorge.
It's a notorious canyon.
It was a hell of an accomplishment
just making it with good equipment.
When I saw the runner broken on his
sled and him riding on one runner,
I just went 'Oh, I'm so sorry Lance.
I guess this ain't your year.'
And I fully expected him to scratch.
Because going down the Dolsal Gorge on one runner is asinine.
One freakin runner.
I had it all bolted into there.
This is so -
It was working pretty good.
It actually held up by 2 ½ hours.
See when I got it done I was making the joke
'I don't need another sled. This will make it to Nome.'
Right. Oh what a wreck.
I imagine he's really going to be glad
he got through here in the daylight.
Oh yeah.
That's it. Alright. Hut, hut. That a boy.
When you leave Rohn for the next 90 miles these
are the toughest miles that the race knows.
I mean it's up and down.
And it's ice, it's rocks, it's dirt.
It's holes, it's tussocks. It's the fair well burn.
It is hell.
For him to go out there with one runner - people
didn't know if he was going to get there safely.
Oh man. I wiped out a couple times coming through the Dorsal.
So just from that one runner. You know? There's no -
you take a turn. You know how sometimes you power slide.
And there's no runner there to keep it. Wham.
I managed to make it to Nikolai.
There was two sleds sitting there that belonged
to people that had scratched in the race.
One guy said 'Yeah, you can use my sled. $3000.'
Well that wasn't going to work.
The other person said flat out 'No, you're not using my sled.'
I just realized right then and there that a lot of these people
that I called my friends were nothing more than competition.
We put the word out that I needed a sled and I
had a sled waiting when I got into McGrath.
Took me about 15 minutes is all to switch my sleds,
snap the dogs, put a few booties on and head down the trail.
Thanks guys.
There's quite a bit of activity at this checkpoint tonight.
Lance Mackey in here about 8:30.
He switched out his sled, headed out.
Lance Mackey, man is he ever moving good.
That one in the lead, Larry, he's you
know really the heart of the team.
Larry's real serious, figures it out.
Knows where they're going.
Lance always said he's the brain of the team.
He says Larry is smarter than he is.
The dogs are exceptional.
The only problem I have is keeping - taking care of myself.
Look at that finger. Oh, it just kills me.
He's had constant problems from radiation.
Nerve damage.
I mean how many people go from one doctor to the
next bugging - begging to get a finger cut off?
I had some side effects from the cancer. No doubt about it.
And one of the main ones is the
circulation in my toes and my fingers.
My index finger on my left hand got
to be very painful all the time.
So I went to the doctor and I asked
him if he could remove my finger.
He said 'Well let me tell you what.
You gotta think about this a second. It's
not an octopus leg. It won't grow back.
And once it's gone it's gone for good.
You still want to do this?' I said
'Chop it off' basically.
Lance Mackey is now 40 minutes behind
which is a lot different than we saw yesterday when
we estimated he was like 2 1/2 -3 hours behind.
Momentum and times have really changed in this 2007 Iditarod.
He's really booking.
It wasn't until after he left Unalakleet,
or maybe even when he got to Shaktoolik to Koyuk that
'Hey, he might pull this off. I gotta get there.'
Here's a look at the actual leaderboard right now.
Lance Mackey is on the attack. He's in first place.
Lance Mackey going after it, huh?
Lance Mackey, the leader of the Iditarod.
Man is he ever moving good.
He's really putting the hammer down.
He isn't playing cat and mouse.
He's just saying 'I'm going to take this race over.'
The only thing that keeps really running through
my head is my dad.
I don't know anything else in the world
that I could do to make him any more proud.
I got to Cape Nome, which is 10 miles outside of Nome,
up on this little mountain.
And I knelt down in front of each one of them one at a time.
And I just thanked them from the bottom of my heart.
Told them how proud I was, what they were about to accomplish.
I made it up to Larry, who was in the lead of course.
He was the last one I talked to
cause I had the most to say to him.
And I looked him in the eye and I said 'Larry,
I know you know where we're at. We've been here several times.'
I said 'I don’t know if you realize
that we're going to be here first this time.'
Larry looked over at me and got this smirk on his face.
Gave me kind of a one eye 'Yeah dad, I know.'
His chest puffed out.
His head came up real high, and his tail came up in the air.
And for the last 7 miles he just strutted down to Nome.
Lance Mackey whipping up the crowd.
Clapping both his hands as the chute closes behind him.
He's in the chute. Coming up past City Hall.
Lance Mackey and his comeback kettle coming back.
This is Lance Mackey, your Iditarod Champion.
Yeah!
Life just changed.
Yeah!
You guys are incredible.
I so love you.
Why is it so important to the Mackey family?
Why has this event become so much
about your family in its definition.
Well it's our lifestyle.
It's something we breathe, eat and sleep.
I mean this is what we do. You know?
My dad got me hooked on this sport.
I'm so proud of him not being a warrior
or a line cook, or something like that.
I don't know if I'd follow in his footsteps.
This is my passion.
And it is very important for us to be
for me to be successful.
And make my father proud. You know?
Lance, your father is not here tonight.
If he was, right now, what would you say to him?
I don't know if I could talk.
He'd be a proud man.
No prouder than your mom.
He ain't no prouder than your momma.
Dreams do come true momma.
He ain't no prouder than your mom.
I know. I'm so happy to see you. Oh my God mom.
I can't believe it.
It was a vision with a dream.
Oh, I did it. They did. They did it too.
Lance will check in.
Oh, it feels so good.
Oh my God. My son just won this thing.
That was the best -
that was the best win, I think, in the history of Iditarod.
I was just in the middle of getting
comfortable and undressed when
I seen the door come open and him
come through the front door.
He said 'I've always wanted to be like my dad and now I am.'
That was pretty special. Yeah. Yeah.
It was cool standing there as I'm answering questions
to look over and see that smile on his face.
The whole time.
And I knew that I'd done what I'd set out to achieve.
And that was to make my parents proud.
He's a guy that didn't get any respect
leading up to the day he won.
And then he still had trouble garnering
respect from his peers once he did win.
The first thing that the competitors were saying was
'Oh, he got lucky. Oh, it was a
fluke. That will never happen again.'
You know? Really?
Why can't you just come up and congratulate me.
Tell me good job instead of making all these excuses
why it happened, why you couldn't do it?
And that's exactly what was going on.
And all that did was just piss me off.
Really? Watch this.
3,2,1 Go
Champion, Lance Mackey from Fairbanks, on his way to Nome.
2,1 Go!
The Denali Park Champion Jeff King on his way to Nome.
Jeff was the team I had to beat to win the race.
I don't care who wins the Iditarod.
They have to outrun Jeff to do it.
He is the best in the world.
And we pretty much dominated the race from the very get go.
He knew Jeff was faster. And his team was better.
And Jeff was toying with him.
Everything I was doing he seemed to be doing as well.
If I stopped, he was going to stop.
If I went to sleep, he was going to go to sleep. If I
fed my dogs, he's going to feed his dogs.
He realizes that King is just dogging him.
He's going to dog him and dog him. Let him break trail.
Just be his shadow. And then in the last
100 miles of the race he's going to take control and win.
He's been doing this since he started racing. You know?
Hang back, hang back and catch you on the coast.
And you never see him again.
We both knew it was going to come down to the two of us.
And trail times were giving me a slight advantage.
But enough of this letting you leave an hour ahead of me.
I'm going out right behind ya.
Hut. I kept thinking 'How am I really going
to outrun a team that's faster than me?'
I knew I had to do something to shake him a little bit.
Elim's the last opportunity.
It was pretty much the end of the line.
Okay. Welcome to Elim.
How's it going?
Alright.
Planning on sleeping a little bit?
Couple hour's maybe.
Okay. Good then. Okay. Okay. Plan on staying?
I'm only going if he's going.
Uh, he plans on staying a little bit.
Okay.
I'm not sure exactly what to say to him at this stage.
I'm not going to congratulate him yet.
He's finally done. He finally knows I'm going to beat him.
And he's just going to hold on to second.
Rockstar.
Likewise uh?
He's just going to basically throw in the towel.
I go in, I drank two big family size cups of coffee.
Then I went and laid down.
He went and laid down by the door.
Put in some headphones and went to sleep that fast.
If anybody asks- I'm still laying down.
Hey. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.
Alright. Kill that.
Hut, hut.
When my eyes opened and I made eye contact
with some of the people in the room,
they looked like they had seen a mass murderer.
And I realized I had been duped.
There's quite a crowd out here as you can hear.
Very boisterous for 3 in the morning but
that's not stopping the gold rush city
from welcoming Lance Mackey to Nome for
the second time in a row in first place.
His lead dogs crossing right now.
Lance Mackey, your 2008 Iditarod Sled Dog Race Champion.
If you're going to dream, dream big right?
Thank you Lance. Good luck in the race.
Thank you. Have a great night.
Thank you.
There you go.
Thank you.
My pleasure. Thank you ladies. I appreciate you being out here.
This race wouldn't be Iditarod, I think, without Lance Mackey.
How you doing young lady? You excited about that Iditarod?
I knew you when you were nobody.
Come on now. I've always been somebody.
Shut up and give me a kiss.
Lance Mackey and his comeback kettle.
Coming back for a 3rd consecutive victory.
This is Lance Mackey your 2009 Iditarod Champion. Lance Mackey!
I didn't really think all this was going to become of it.
I honestly didn't.
I'm not just running dogs to become
noticed and to win the Iditarod.
I love spending time with the dogs.
I love Alaska and I love the people in it.
I was down at the local hardware store the other day.
A teenager was working in there. And
I bought something with a credit card.
She said 'Dick Mackey.
Are you related to Lance?'
And I says 'Yeah. I'm his dad.'
'Oh cool.'
And she says 'Did you run dogs too?'
A historic finish for 2010.
Four for Lance Mackey. The only musher to do so back to back.
I drew the right number. Number 49.
This is representing the whole state of Alaska
and the people who believe in me.
You've done something that will never be repeated son.
Four in a row will never be done again.
This is the greatest accomplishment
that this sport has ever, ever seen.
And it's the greatest accomplishment
that this sport will ever see.
Ever. Period. Done. End of story.
The greatest thing has already happened.
Okay. Come eat. Come on.
- Hi. - Hello
- You're eating. I know. -Not yet
Well, I'm sorry. No, it's just you
gotta say no. but after me okay?
- Thanks Lance. - You're very welcome.
It's nonstop. Everybody wants a piece of him.
I think success always comes at a price.
His marriage to Tonya probably is a casualty of the success.
Welcome to the Iditarod.
What a hero I'm going to be when I go home.
Lance Mackey.
This is a name you should remember
if you're interested in dog mushing.
Look over here to the right, the man himself is going to
be our guest today during the time that you're on shore.
Small little test.
When you get done with your vacation,
you go home and see your dog,
lock it in the closet with your husband
or your wife for about an hour.
Then go back to see which one's happy to see ya.
Lance Mackey.
I call him Hollywood.
But if there was one thing that would get his
attention more than anything- ice cream.
Oh, he found the ice cream.
I started racing dogs even before I was even born.
When I went to school I had a knife and a lighter
in my pocket.
He is a lover this boy. He's done this once or twice.
Here want some water?
He can't drink water out of a bowl.
He'd think he was a dog then.
I spent, you know, a fair amount
of time fighting with my ex-wife.
And I would get on a sled and go for a ride.
And five minutes after I left the yard normally I was fine.
Dogs didn't care about what kind of argument I just had. Or-
you know? I understand dogs a lot more.
I don't understand people.
It's been easier for me to communicate
with dogs pretty much all my life.
I'm more comfortable doing this kind of stuff than being
surrounded by a bunch of people, and buildings and cars.
Living in the woods would be just fine by me.
It's warm out huh guys?
I think that's everybody. That's everybody.
You live in Fairbanks?
How'd you know that?
Musher update.
They got all the musher's pictures up at the school.
And they say where you live and everything.
It says you're around year 50.
What? You knew?
I forgot.
No. It didn't say I was around 50.
I forgot.
No.
No. She's older than I am.
In dog years.
Ah, you make me laugh.
You know at one point in the race,
I really thought I could win this thing.
But hey, you know, you're not going to win them all.
Lance finished 19th in the 2013 Iditarod.
I'm not going to say I wouldn't want to win the Iditarod again.
But it wouldn't change anything if I did.
There we go. That's it.
I just want to go have fun with my dogs.
Thatta boys. Good job.
How about you old man? Want some? Hey big Zippo.
Hi pretty girl. You get some loving too.
I didn't forget you.
Alright munchkins. Alright little munchkins.
They're all my best friends. Every single one of them.
Billy Badass. Billy Badass.
There's nothing else in the world
that matters when I'm with them.
Most people think we're alone when we're out there
in the middle of nowhere.
There's nothing more enjoyable than
being out with your best friends.
That's it. That's it.
That's my boys.
It is all about the dogs.
As long as my dogs are happy and healthy I'm golden.
I know you haven't had enough attention today.
I know you haven't had no attention today.
Yeah, you silly boy. So sorry boy.
Yeah. Little boy.
Is that all?