I know most people here don't follow competive long distance mushing, but Kudo's go out to Lance Mackey who just won the 1000 mile race that this year was run between Whitehorse, Yukon and Fairbanks Alaska. William Kleedehn from Canada came in 8 minutes later to claim second place.

What really makes Mackey's victory special is that 4 years ago at the age of 30 he had a cancerous tumor removed from his neck. This left him without several major neck muscles and lymphatic nodes in the neck. He also lost his saliva glands in the operation and has to carry extra water with him since he can't keep his mouth wet. A very dangerous thing in the dry cold arctic air.

Mackay and his dog team will also be making the Iditarod start on March 5th.