The end of the grueling 1,100-mile Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska came this Tuesday when Lance Mackey drove his team of huskies across the finish line on Front Street in the town of Nome, up on the Bering Sea. Nine days and five hours of battling the elements were over. Mackey kissed his lead dog Larry and broke down in tears, emoting the reverence he's had for this race his entire life. Mackey had watched his father win the fabled Iditarod in 1978. And then his brother won it in 1983. Lance grew up dreaming of mushing into Nome ahead of the pack, his beard stiff with icicles, his body aching with the fatigue of running alongside the sled in knee-deep snow, of hustling through the rest periods to care for the freeze cuts on his team's paws, of sleeping himself maybe a mere hour a day. Tuesday was a long time in the making for Lance Mackey...
