"You want me to crisp it up a little bit more?" he asked.

"I'm not picky when it comes to food," Mackey replied.

"That's a good dog to me," said Johnson, also an Iditarod veteran who finished 33rd in last year's race.

That's not the first time he's been told he'd make a good sled dog, Mackey said.

The 40-year-old musher sat at a long cafeteria table, in 11th place, talking about what went wrong in his quest for an unprecedented fifth-straight Iditarod victory. Here's perhaps the sport's most popular, and most outspoken, musher in his own words:

On missing a fifth win:

"I've come to realize that obviously I've been a little selfish to think that I could have had another perfect run and won a fifth Iditarod. Just because I've had the experience and a team in the past, doesn't mean it's going to happen every damn time.

"I can't say it's bad, because I'm having a good run. I just don't have any dogs left to run with. I don't have much ammo."

Would he have done anything different?

"I would have stayed in Yentna a lot longer than a half hour. It was way warm, and I was starting at the front of the pack so I knew I had an opportunity to get to the front. There was a lot of kennel cough and different viruses, and I probably ran in the heat more than I should have, faster than I should have been going.

"Not that that is what put me where I'm at."

He really has nothing up his sleeve?

"Oh no. I'm not even going to pretend. Hell no. I (saw) that back in Nikolai. I've just been hanging on for dear life. What I think is really cool, though, is that it is somebody new. No matter what."

When he knew it was over

"I knew that back in Nikolai. But I have to stay positive and I'm still racing as hard as I can even if it's for 11th or 21st or 91st.

"At the moment I'm running by myself and I'm kind of racing a group right behind me. I'm not even really trying to worry about the guys in front of me now. It's not always about the competition. There's always a race inside the race, and my race is against me and my team at the moment."

Was there a turning point where things went bad?

"There's been so many little things -- not one specific moment. Again, most people think that if I'm not winning, I'm not having a good race. People expect you to win every time because you have. And that's a lot of pressure. Although I'm not normally one to listen to the pressure, you know, and the worries. And what people expect.

"I left the starting line with one, old, veteran dog. From my original team. The team that can do miracles. And I packed her across the burn. That was Lippy. I wish I had the answers for all the things that have gone wrong. I really don't know.

"I've had nine dogs since Nikolai."

Who would he like to win?

"I don't know that I have a favorite. I think everybody deserves an opportunity. But I really think it would be great for the sport and the state of Alaska if Johnny Baker could pull this off.

"But if I had a personal favorite, somebody that really works hard and deserves a win, it's Ramey Smyth. I think Ramey Smyth would be another very humble champion. "He doesn't have deep pockets like Johnny does. Not that that is necessary to win the Iditarod. I'm a perfect example of that. But somebody like Ramey Smyth deserves something this big. Not that Johnny don't."

Have years of winning made him soft?

I wouldn't say I'm soft at all. But I think that there's a lot of distraction that comes with success. I tried some other things this year. I went to Wyoming and raced. "I don't know. I have a young team. I started the race with nine new dogs that were 3 and under."

On his legacy

"I will always be a four-time Iditarod champ no matter what. Some day maybe a five time. Eleventh place is not a disappointment or a bad finish in the Iditarod. These are world class teams and everybody's working their ass off trying to get in that position."

The rest of the race?

"My goal (is) just like it always is, I'm having fun, which is priority. I mean if you're not having fun, what the hell is the point. Just taking a nice trip with the team. I'm building a new leader.

"I got a 3-year-old male that's run every step of the way. His name (is) Wilson. This is his first trip. And I mean every step of the way, he's run in the lead. And a lot of it in single lead. He ran the whole river in single lead, and he's had his tail up, like he enjoys it.

"And it's fun to watch because, as you know, I lost Maple early on. Rev's staying here. Rev's been sore since the (Farewell) Burn. He hasn't led maybe 100 miles told. And some of the other leaders I thought I had at the starting line decided to give me the middle finger.

"And so Wilson has been the go-to man the whole way, which is encouraging because now I know I have something for the future."