Dallas Seavey overcame killing a moose and receiving a time penalty to win the Iditarod on Tuesday, a record-breaking sixth championship in the world’s most famous sled dog race.
Seavey drove his team a half-block off the Bering Sea ice onto the frozen streets of Nome to cross under the famed burled arch finish line, a triumphant moment in a race marred by the deaths of three sled dogs, including two on Sunday, and serious injury to a fourth.
Seavey, 37, becomes the winningest musher in the 51-year history of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which takes the teams over two mountain ranges, across the Yukon River and along the frozen edges of the Bering Sea just south of the Arctic Circle.
The race started March 2 for 38 mushers with a ceremonial run in Anchorage. The competitive start was held the following day 75 miles north of Anchorage. Since then, seven mushers have withdrawn.
Fans poured out of bars lining Front Street to cheer Seavey, whose team was escorted by a police car with flashing lights. A former mayor once compared the atmosphere in Nome for the Iditarod finish to that of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but with dogs.
Such a momentous win started out rough for Seavey after his team got tangled up with a moose on the trail just hours after the Iditarod started.
Seavey’s dog Faloo was injured before Seavey shot and killed the moose with a handgun. Race rules require any big game animal killed in defense of life or property to be gutted before the musher moves on.
Seavey told officials he gutted the moose the best he could. However, he was ultimately given a two-hour time penalty because he only spent 10 minutes gutting the moose, officials said.
The time penalty did not cost Seavey the race, and he left the second-to-last checkpoint Tuesday morning with a healthy three-hour lead over his nearest competitor.
