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A dog race that spans the width of Alaska, the annual March Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is one of the longest and most grueling dog races in the world, with this year consisting of 1,100-miles of arctic blizzard conditions.  And presently, it looks as if Lance Mackey is going to win the 2009 Iditarod, after winning the 2007-2008 Iditarod race and the one in 1978. With racing in his blood, his father Dick Mackey was one of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race founders in 1973 when it was first officially organized. The very first Iditarod race he won was in 1978—a race that he barely won by a second.

Alaska native Lance Mackey is one of the few mushers who won the two 2007 and 2008 back to back dog races—both the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in February and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in March. The so-called "Iditarod" dog race can take up to fifteen days to complete this exhausting and seemingly endless course in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, testing the upmost strength and endurance of dedicated men, women and dog teams to find the top quality and bravest musher and dog team in the entire state of Alaska. The best record so far has been that of Martin Buser in 2002 which took 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds, one of the few dog races along with the 2003 Iditarod when Lance Mackey had pulled out due to having throat cancer, of which he is now a cancer survivor.

Winning the Iditarod is nothing to sneeze at, by any means.  If Lance Mackey wins this week, he will receive approximately $69,000 and a brand new pickup in his favorite color from winning the Iditarod alone, which is the same prize purse as of last year, and not counting any additional races he participated in this entire year.  With 67 teams beginning the race in Anchorage and ending in Nome, the Iditarod musher favorites have a rock star status in this northern state with the 11-miles ran through the city of Anchorage before the official running of the race, seen as simply a formality and a way for the fans to cheer the favorite musher onward.

Due to the economy, the numbers are very much down from last year---which was seen as a record with 96 teams. But still, big names have started out in the race this year, with most following Lance Mackey's race motto: "…expect the worst and hope for the best." With an entry fee of $4,000 and numbers due for sled entries, it is hard for many of the team mushers to take time off from their jobs to run the race, which have been known to last up to two weeks in length, along with Iditarod budgets being cut due to the economic recession. This is shown in the $900,000 purse from last year dropping to $650,000 this year.