Noon found Mackey's dogs resting in the quiet Bering Sea village of Koyuk, partaking of the magic formula for success on the way to the finish line in Nome:

Stay one checkpoint ahead of the competition all along the coast and the race is yours.

Mackey is now so far ahead of the competition that he can -- if he chooses -- wait for the arrival of a chase team in every checkpoint along the way to a mandatory, 8-hour stop at White Mountain. If he does that, leaving only when other teams arrive, he can maximize the rest his dogs get, though there isn't even a hint they need it.

From checkpoint to checkpoint along the coast, Mackey continues to post faster times than any of the teams behind. He's got 15 dogs rolling along at 8 to 10 mph and looking as if they can hold that pace all the way to the finish line of the 1,000-mile race that began in Anchorage a week ago Saturday.

Behind him, others appear to have recognized the inevitable and settled into a tactical battle for second involving about a half-dozen teams.

"I'm not really concerned about beating Lance," said one of the six, Hugh Neff from Skagway. "I don't think I could do any better than I am right now. I just want to do the best with my dogs."

Neff faces stiff competition from reigning Yukon Quest champ Sebastian Schnuelle from Whitehorse, 2004 Iditarod champ Mitch Seavey from Sterling, surprise contender Aaron Burmeister from Nenana, four-time Iditarod champ Jeff King from Denali Park and longtime Iditarod contender John Baker from Kotzebue.

Schnuelle led them all of out Shaktoolik, but that was no guarantee he would stay at the front of the parade for long. The winner of the 1,000-mile Quest in the Interior only a couple weeks ago, he stayed in the village only long enough to grab food and straw for his dogs.

He clearly planned to stop somewhere on the 60-mile run to Koyuk, most probably near a shelter cabin on the last point of land before the trail heads straight across the ice of Norton Bay for tens of miles.

Behind Schnuelle, Seavey and Burmeister, who is looking for a first-ever top-10 finish after 11 Iditarods, gave their teams a 2.5-hour rest before heading out of the village only minutes apart shortly after noon.

It was a long, uncomfortable run to Koyuk. Weather along the coast has turned brutal. The National Weather Service posted a wind-chill warning through Wednesday with blowing snow, temperatures of 15- to 20-degrees below zero, and winds gusting up to 40 mph. With the wind chill, that works out to about minus 55.

The teams have the wind in their faces.

That's no real problem for furry dogs, but exposed human flesh can freeze in seconds in those conditions. It gave mushers already worrying about the competition something new to worry about, although most of the attention from here on to the mandatory 8-hour rest stop at White Mountain will be focused on how to keep the dogs moving as quickly as possible.

Because even as Burmeister and Seavey were stalking Schnuelle, they were being stalked by King, Baker and Neff.