Seavey wins 3rd Iditarod with versatile racing style

NOME — As Willow resident Dallas Seavey and his team of sled dogs sped through the final checkpoints on the Iditarod Trail, he had to remind himself to be patient.

In a press conference Wednesday morning after Seavey’s second consecutive first-place finish, he told fans and reporters that being the first to White Mountain was more “eerie” than exciting.

“I was sitting in exactly the position that (four-time Iditarod winner) Jeff (King) was in last year,” Seavey said at the press conference. “(He had) a fast dog team, a big lead, and it looked like a done deal.”

But it wasn’t a done deal. Last year, King was first out of the checkpoint with a nearly three-hour lead on Seavey, who was sitting third behind three-time runner-up Aliy Zirkle. However, before King could reach Safety, high winds and blowing snow forced him to scratch. Zirkle, too, stopped to wait out the storm, leaving Seavey to claim the win.

“It’s just too easy to lose (a lead), even in the last minute,” said Seavey, who notched his third Iditarod win in four years on Wednesday, eight days, 18 hours, 13 minutes and six seconds after leaving the starting chute in Fairbanks.

That’s not to say the whole race was a piece of cake, however.

“This was a very tough race, it was not the easy run that a lot of people had anticipated,” Seavey said.

Although he was mindful of the other teams — noting, for example, that third-place finisher Aaron Burmeister was about two hours ahead of him at the halfway point, and had not taken his mandatory eight-hour layover yet, while Seavey had — he was playing his own game.

“It’s not about a position, it’s not about trying to beat the team in front of you, it’s about getting your team to the finish line as quick as they can,” Seavey said. “That is the best way to beat the team in front of you.”

So, hearing about other racers winning awards for finishing first at various checkpoints — like his father, Mitch Seavey, who won the PenAir Spirit of Alaska award in Ruby — didn’t worry him much.

Until he reached Kaltag.

Seavey said he saw five teams with first-place potential take off while he was in Unalakleet. Hanging back while they “run themselves out” was “a really big challenge,” he said.

“You wanna race out in front and prove that your team’s the best and get a lead and then be comfortable with that lead. But I had to hold back,” Seavey said.

And it was good he did.

“In Kaltag, I thought Jeff was my biggest competition. Had I raced to beat Jeff, we probably wouldn’t have won,” Seavey said.

Seavey had begun moving at a quicker pace than King by the time they reached the Yukon River village of Galena. But in Kaltag, King was still close behind.

Wednesday afternoon, King finished seventh.

What it takes

While Seavey called restraint “one of the best qualities of an endurance racer,” there are several things to take into account in an Iditarod race, he said.

Mainly, it has to do with style.

“Good dog drivers have a style — great dog drivers have all the styles,” Seavey said.

Seavey said the race style he’s been running involves hanging back in the beginning, then coming on more aggressively in the second half of the race, especially after Unalakleet.

This year, he did start the race more aggressively than in the past, which he may continue to do, he said. But every race is different.

“The best style for any given race is the best combination of your dog team multiplied by the trail,” he said. “You have to assess your team — and that includes how they’re trained, their genetics, their personality and the trail — and find what style is the most efficient way to cover that distance.”

“If you are a single-dimensional musher,” he added, “it limits your ability to do what’s right for the dog team on that trail.”

The racer’s level of trust in the dogs, Seavey said, also can make or break a performance.

“As a dog driver, when you decide to stay in a checkpoint … for four hours, you have to trust that your dog team is gonna jump up and take off fast again,” he said. “I trusted them to run fast. They trusted me to rest them. And we just kept going faster and faster and faster until we ended up (in Nome) first.”

For Seavey, he said that trust has taken years to build. While most of his 2015 team consisted of dogs 2 to 4 years old, he said he has worked with those dogs’ parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents, giving him a special understanding of their natures.

“I already know so much about those dogs (before they’re born),” he said. “I know where they’re gonna have trouble. I know where they’re gonna have strengths or weaknesses. And you can help bolster their confidence by playing to their strengths.”

North to the future?

With three wins in four years and so much history with his kennel already, Seavey seems well prepared for many more wins in the future. However, he’s not looking to “put a tag on” the length of his career just yet.

“I very well could be 60 years old and still racing the Iditarod, and hopefully as competitive as my dad and Jeff are,” Seavey said. “Or I could be done in 5 years.”

He said he doesn’t plan to stop racing the Iditarod any time soon, but he also doesn’t want to put pressure on himself, his family or his kennel.

“The quickest way to get burnt out in a sport is to feel like you have to do it for the next 20 years. That’s when you feel stuck,” he said.

“I’m gonna keep mushing dogs as long as it’s what we enjoy to do more than anything else.”

Results

as of 11 a.m. Friday

1. Dallas Seavey, 8 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes, 6 seconds; 2. Mitch Seavey, 8:22:22:56; 3. Aaron Burmeister, 8:23:47:31; 4. Jessie Royer, 9:01:51:09; 5. Aliy Zirkle, 9:04:44:25; 6. Joar Ulsom, 9:05:21:01; 7. Jeff King, 9:05:47:50; 8. Wade Marrs, 9:08:15:17; 9. Ken Anderson, 9:10:38:54; 10. Nicolas Petit, 9:11:19:20; 11. Travis Beals, 9:13:18:; 12. Paul Gebhardt, 9:15:38:20; 13. Kelly Maixner, 9:15:39:01; 14. Peter Kaiser, 9:15:44:35; 15. Christian Turner, 9:16:05:02; 16. Ray Redington Jr, 9:16:27:00; 17. Thomas Waerner, 9:18:10:20; 18. Jason Campeau, 9:19:28:11; 19. Hugh Neff, 9:20:25:44; 20. Michelle Phillips, 9:21:17:30; 21. John Baker, 9:22:12:58; 22. Martin Buser, 9:22:36:40; 23. Richie Diehl, 9:23:26:59; 24. Nathan Schroeder, 9:23:44:59; 25. Mats Pettersson, 10:00:11:21; 26. Scott Smith, 10:06:12:26; 27. Paige Drobny, 10:06:15:37; 28. Anna Berington, 10:11:06:33; 29. Kristy Berington, 10:11:10:50; 30. Jodi Bailey, 10:16:07:55; 31. DeeDee Jonrowe, 10:19:10:23; 32. Curt Perano, 10:21:11:24; 33. Justin Savidis, 11:00:35:10.

Cheryl Metiva, the Frontiersman’s director of sales and marketing, contributed to this story from Nome.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.