A few more yards and Lippy would lead the Iditarod team into a giant hole of bone-chilling water. But her master yelled “whoa.” She stopped and turned away.

Team Mackey dodged death — and the crowd went wild. More than 135 Iditarod fanatics packed Wasilla’s cozy Machetanz Theater Friday evening with Mackey and four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser to watch the premiere of the 2007 Iditarod documentary, “As Tough as They Come.”

Mackey, wearing a black baseball cap, T-shirt and jeans, sat in the front row next to his wife, Tonya, watching his Comeback Kennel dogs on the big screen.

“To hear the crowd sigh and clap, yeah, that sent chills,” said Mackey, who turned 37 on Saturday.

The event was meant to raise money for a new Matanuska-Susitna Borough animal shelter, a $5 million project the Ma-Su Borough Assembly recently agreed to support.

The 90-minute film follows 82 Iditarod starters who battled the blizzards, below-zero temperatures, glacier overflow and frozen tussocks that made the 2007 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race one of the most grueling in the race’s 35-year history.

The race also had one of its most magical storylines.

A cancer survivor from Fairbanks, Mackey made sled dog history. He was the first musher to claim victories in the 1,100-mile Iditarod and 1,000-mile Yukon Quest in the same year.

Eight of the nine dogs that completed the Quest on Feb. 20 crossed the Iditarod finish line in Nome just weeks later. It was a tremendous feat that few thought possible.

And Mackey won wearing lucky No. 13 — the bib number his dad, Dick Mackey, and brother, Rick Mackey, wore when they won the Iditarod in 1978 and 1983, respectively. All three did it on their sixth try. “Life’s changed,” Mackey said at the conclusion of the film when he crossed the burled arch in Nome and hugged teary-eyed family members. This simple, easy-going man used to live quietly on a Cook Inlet beach inside a tarp tent with his family, stressing about gas money and truck problems on his way to sled dog races.

Now he’s drives a shiny maroon 2007 Dodge Ram Laramie. Both his popularity and his bankroll have soared.

Every day, bags of fan mail are delivered to his house. E-mails pour into his inbox. And wherever he goes, fans recognize his bony face and long pony tail. Many seek his autograph.

“I go to a restaurant, somebody recognizes me and I don’t have to pay for lunch,” Mackey said. “Get caught at a stoplight, and they ask me to pull over for an autograph.

“People are basically screaming out my name. They’re running all the way across the parking lot of Fred Meyer completely out of breath.” Buser, who watched the film sitting next to his wife Kathy Chapoton, was applauded for his interview in the film. He well knows the attention mushers get by winning the Iditarod.

“Winning the Iditarod will put you on a magnified glass,” Buser said in the film. “But what you do with the victory is what determines your success.”

Mackey recognizes this responsibility. Being Iditarod champion isn’t always the life of a rock star. For an entire year, there’s work to do. He’s now his sport’s ambassador.

Since winning on March 13, Mackey has visited 20 elementary schools and a youth detention center, his wife said. He’s been invited to four mushing symposiums overseas.

To get through this public relation chaos, Mackey hired an agent to keep his life in order.

“I used to think that I was in control of my life,” he joked. “But really, if I took on all that responsibility I wouldn’t have time to train my dogs.”

Though life has changed, Mackey’s down-to-earth personality hasn’t. Just ask the four retired travelers from Oklahoma who showed up on Mackey’s Fairbanks doorstep on Memorial Day. They wanted to meet the man they’d read about online.

“We just wanted to meet the guy who could go 1,100 miles,” said Howard Ryser, a retired chemical engineer from Grove, Okla. “And then we get here and find out he won another 1,000-mile race 10 days before.” Ryser and his wife, Kay, have been touring Alaska in an recreational vehicle with their friends, Larry and Judy Johnson. They drove from Oklahoma to Fairbanks with the hope of meeting Mackey. “I call him the Iron Man,” Kay Ryser said.

Howard Ryser researched Iditarod stories and discovered that Mackey actually lives outside Fairbanks near Fox. In search of his kennel, the Okies stopped at a country store and asked the sales clerk if she knew where he lived.

The woman happened to be Mackey’s neighbor. “She called him up and we drove out there,” Howard said. “He sat in the rain for an hour visiting people he didn’t even know.”

Mackey gave these tourists a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the Comeback Kennel.

Howard said they met two of Mackey’s most famous dogs:

• Larry, a 6-year-old leader who’s finished eight 1,000-mile races — five Iditarods and three Yukon Quests. Larry led the team down Front Street.

• Zorro, Mackey’s most prized dog, who tugged at the nation’s heartstrings when he battled back from a dangerous bout of pneumonia on the Iditarod Trail.

“It was just like you’d expect,” Howard said about Mackey’s kennel. “He’s a simple guy who lives out in the … What do they call it? The Bush?

“He’s a pretty straight-forward guy. What you see is what you get.” Though almost three months have passed since Mackey won the Iditarod, he still finds it odd that people flock to see him.

“To be an inspiration, I have a hard time accepting that,” he said. “I would assume that if somebody falls ill, they’d be motivated to stay alive to fulfill their dreams, whether it’s racing cars or throwing darts.”

The Oklahoma visitors continued their Alaska tour in Wasilla on Friday and found out Mackey was going to be in town to watch the Iditarod documentary.

How lucky could they get? Two Mackey visits in less than a week was as likely as Mackey winning the Idita-Quest title.

They walked into the theater and approached Mackey. “We’re your Oklahoma fan club,” Kay Ryser said.

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Daily News reporter Kevin Klott can be reached at kklott@adn.com or 257-4335.

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Iditarod movie wins an Emmy

The Iditarod Trail Committee’s documentary of the 2006 race, “Mother Nature’s Turn To Dance,” won an Emmy Award in Seattle on Saturday night. The 94-minute film won the Program Achievement Award for a News Special, according to Chas St. George, the executive in charge of the film for the Iditarod.

“I’m really jazzed about the fact that this was our first time out,” said St. George. “It’s special to be able to share the Iditarod with the rest of the world.

Greg Heister produced and directed the film. Terry Burge was editor. “Mother Nature” beat out two other competitors in the category. The Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nominated the documentary, which has aired on KAKM-TV (Channel 7).

— Daily News staff