2008 Mackey no doze

Lance Mackey baited Jeff King into thinking he was settling in for a rest at the Elim checkpoint. As King slept, Mackey bolted -- gaining a 53-minute edge at White Mountain that he never lost. "He baited me right into it," King said.

1991 Swenson survives storm

Rick Swenson drove his team into a raging storm outside of White Mountain. He caught odds-on favorite and four-time champion Susan Butcher, but he became separated from her in the storm. Butcher turned back but Swenson pressed on. It took him 23 hours to cover the 77 miles from White Mountain to Nome for victory No. 5.

1985 Riddles conquers a blizzard

Libby Riddles mushed 13 dogs out of Shaktoolik onto frozen Norton Sound into the teeth of a blizzard. Nobody followed. She emerged in Koyuk with a gap no musher could overcome, becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod.

1981 Swenson interrupts dinner

Rick Swenson emerged out of a wet, white mist in Golovin, 95 miles from Nome, in 1981 with a grin and three words for the race leaders: "I caught 'em." Larry "Cowboy" Smith and Roger Nordlum, two mushers trying mightily to stay ahead of Swenson, were having a quick dinner. They knew they were doomed. Swenson claimed his third Iditarod victory.