Mackey checks race info at the Unalakleet checkpoint
From Kyle Hopkins in Unalakleet --
Defending three-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey arrived here at 3:32 a.m. holding a lead on four-time winner Jeff King, and taking a moment to describe the gamble that put him in first place.
King had arrived first at the previous checkpoint of Kaltag, but rested for hours as Mackey passed straight through to claim the lead.
"The first thing I asked when I got (to Kaltag) was if Jeff had left, and if he did, I wanted to know if he had took straw," Mackey said. Taking straw would have hinted that King planned to stop and rest up the trail. "The answer was better than I expected -- with 'No he hasn’t left,' and his comment was, ‘God, I hope (Mackey) don’t blow through.’"
"So not only was I blowing through, I wasn’t going to stop until I got here," Mackey said. "So I’m hoping he’s a little bit flustered with me at the moment.”
While Mackey said the rivalry between them isn't personal, he also said the two champions have traded verbal barbs at checkpoints over the past few years and that King made "a nice smart comment" to him this year in Ruby.
“We do it to each other. We jab each other and make the other one think about the other one for the next day or so," Mackey said while unpacking gear to feed his dogs. "If ... I’m thinking about Jeff, then I’m going to be taking away from my racing performance and focus on my team if I’m sitting there thinking and worrying about him. And vice versa."
Mackey wouldn't say what King said to him. “It was uncalled for and all it did was fire me up a little bit," he said.
Mackey started the verbal duel himself in 2007, he said, when he asked King if "he was scared yet" at a checkpoint. Last year, King made the same comment to him, he said.
Mackey says his dogs look good, including his leaders Rev and Maple, and that he's glad he made the flash decision to press on through Kaltag when he saw King was resting there.
"You gotta be willing to gamble. And I am totally willing to gamble any time any day. I am not afraid to lay it on the line," Mackey said.
A throng of fans, media and volunteers -- gloved hands at their sides, watching the horizon in their hoods and parkas like a flock of penguins -- cheered his arrival.
The checkpoint is a spartan, warehouse-like building filled with cafeteria tables, volunteers and little else. Mackey sat on a folding chair and peeled away his socks, holding his right foot in his hand.
“I’m beat up," he said. "I have been. I’ve been hiding it well though. But I’m getting wimpier. … I’m glad it’s about over.”
UPDATE, 8:30 a.m.: Jeff King arrived at 6:29 a.m. -- about three hours after Mackey. By the time King fed his dogs and came inside the checkpoint to eat, Mackey was awake and getting a shoulder rub. "All I got to do is cut my rest and if my dogs can do it, I have the fastest team" King said.
But he was surprised to learn that over the 90 miles from Kaltag to Unalakleet, he'd gained only a single minute on Mackey. (Mackey said he'd noticed King's speed drop after Galena.)
Had Mackey's plan worked, leaving King befuddled by a bold surge to Unalakleet?
“I don’t know if I was befuddled. But it was a really crummy trail … It was for me, all the way to Tripod was very punchy, soft trail. I’m really glad I went over it with a team that had four hours rest rather than one that had just run four hours.”
King said he felt as good as he ever has in the Iditarod, though he sometimes appeared to search for words.
I asked him about the rivalry with Mackey. He said it exists, but "There's not too many guys I'd rather be racing against." What did he say to Mackey in Ruby? "Same thing I said the last couple years, which is: 'Are you worried yet?'"
When I left the checkpoint, Mackey and King were both sleeping. Mackey had asked for an 8:30 a.m. wake up call. King wants to get up at 8:45, volunteers said.
Hugh Neff was next in, arriving at 7:17 a.m.
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