For many years the proverbial "they" said it couldn't be done. One person could not win the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod back to back - two weeks apart even - in the same year.
An impossible feat. Those who had run both in the same year either held their dogs back during the Quest, or went all out and were too tired during the Iditarod.
But Lance Mackey didn't believe the naysayers. After all, he had just finished surviving cancer - what was a couple of 1,000 mile dogsled races?
And then last year, 2007, he did it. After already winning the Yukon Quest twice and then cracking the top 10 both times at Iditarod - a hard enough feat he got little credit for - Mackey won them both, back to back, within weeks - no - days of each other.
"A fluke," many thought. "Lucky," some said.
Lance Mackey is no fluke. And just to prove the naysayers wrong again, he won again. The Quest and the Iditarod. Back to back. For the second straight year.
An athletic feat of man and dogs that should be in the history books, but will barely scrape the first page of most papers. But in Alaska and all of the mushing world, Lance and his dogs are true heroes.
Well done Lance...and on to the All-Alaska Sweepstakes!
For more info:
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2008/news/story/342568.html
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Hi Michelle,
I'm a reporter with Channel 5 and am working on a story about homelessness. I tried emailing you, but for some reason it wouldn't go through. I would love to chat with you about my story. If you could email me or give me a call, that would be wonderful. My email is bshanahan@hearst.com and my number is 708.341.4361. Thanks! Bridget Shanahan
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