Dallas Seavey mushed through a wicked storm at race's end, arrived in Nome presuming he had finished third and was momentarily mystified to discover he had become the two-time champion of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Matt Kenney returned to the mountain that nearly cost him his life two years earlier, conquered the Mount Marathon race in Seward and declared himself on top of the world. That same day, two-time Olympian Holly Brooks, punctuating world-class fitness with world-class will, dragged her depleted body across the finish line to barely win the women's race.
Justin Johnson, twice released by his hometown team in a hockey league two notches below the NHL, kept grinding away at his improbable dream and reached the world's best league at the unlikely age of 32.
And yet, for all the fitness and fearlessness Alaska athletes exhibited in 2014, for all their records and resolve, and for all their amazing accomplishments, perhaps no one proved as potent as a prep pixie from the Peninsula.
Allie Ostrander of Kenai was that awesome. She's tiny, but a titan.
In spring, she wiped out state high school records in the 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters on the track. In fall, she seized a third state cross-country running championship. In winter, she conquered the country, winning the Nike nationals in Portland. Still, her finest moment may have come in July in Seward, where she not only won a sixth consecutive girls championship and broke her own record at Mount Marathon, but became the first girl in junior history to also beat all the boys in the mixed-gender race.
The past year in Alaska sports furnished drama and determination, and some disappointment too. There were jaw-dropping accomplishments, a coveted chalice raised, milestones met, a gleaming new arena unveiled, and lack of snow in both winters that halted skiers and mushers. There were also good souls lost – RIP, Peter Lekisch, Dick Lobdell, Steve Cobb, Erik Peterson and Lars Spurkland.
And there were moments sublimely strange. You don't often witness a man running around an indoor track while brushing his teeth. Or a bicycle race in which event headquarters is a bar and one of the organizers' main prerace tasks is obtaining liquor permits. And certainly not a man who runs from Anchorage to Fairbanks, and when he gets there runs in a sanctioned marathon.
As if a 1,000-mile race is not daunting enough, Iditarod mushers early in the race endured a snowless trail that left a string of broken sleds, broken bodies and broken dreams. Late in the race, when it appeared victory would go to Jeff King or Aliy Zirkle, Seavey emerged from the storm, incredulous when told he won.
"Are you kidding me?'' Seavey asked.
The Alaska Aces captured the ECHL's Kelly Cup for the third time in the hockey franchise's 11-season history, rendering hard men as giddy as children enjoying a snow day away from school. Amid the celebration, there was center Jordan Morrison talking on his cellphone to relatives in a moment so very hockey: "I don't think mum has a beer yet, but we'll get her one.''
Anchorage's Scott Gomez played his 1,000th regular-season game in the NHL, enhancing his rink resume as the state's most accomplished hockey player.
Alas, his television-commercial co-star and fellow East High alum, four-time Olympian Kikkan Randall, swallowed a setback in the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. She was eliminated early in her signature event, the freestyle sprint, and, not surprisingly, met that disappointment with a quality as steadfast as her strength and speed: Pure class. No excuses. And then she promptly won her third title as World Cup sprint champion.
Golfers in Anchorage suffered the loss of Eagleglen Golf Course, closed after military officials cited a loss of $2.2 million in the previous five years. The closing reduced available tee times locally -- one fewer course for hackers to throw up a quadruple bogey but mark it as a triple.
Eielson's Anthony Griffith tore off an unofficial state-record 516 yards rushing in a single high school football game. Micah Chelimo, from Michael Friess' stellar UAA running program, won an indoor national championship in the 3,000 meters by a tiny margin imperceptible to the eye after losing the 5,000 by the same. UAA, long lacking adequate sports facilities for even an NCAA Division II program, opened the doors of its $109 million Alaska Airlines Center and moved the Great Alaska Shootout to the new joint.
Amber Stull won the Gold Nugget Triathlon for the third straight year. Miles Dunbar won the Heart Run. He's got a ways to go to match his old man, Marcus. Dad won it 10 times.
Our pal Matias Saari did a solid in representing the older set -- at 44, he became the oldest champion in the history of the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks. Christie Marvin, runner-up to Brooks in that thrilling homestretch duel at Mount Marathon, shattered the women's Equinox standard.
Also running that September day in the Golden Heart City was David Johnston of Willow. He merely ran the 360-odd miles from Anchorage to Fairbanks to get to the Equinox. Long distance is sorta his thing. He crushed running records in both the Susitna 100-miler and the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational, and he ran more than 400 miles in four-plus days of the Six Days at the Dome, an indoor ultramarathoning event that at one point left a dazed, but smiling, Johnson to muse, "I don't know who I am.''
You are among the insane, David. And you had plenty of company. Like Liz Bauer of Georgia, who listed like a zombie in the waning laps of her 425 miles.
"I could feel myself losing consciousness,'' Bauer said. "It was a cool out-of-body experience.''
OK, then.
Not that the Six-Days-at-the-Domers had anything on the folks at the Single Speed World Championships in Kincaid Park. The bicycling event was seeped in mystery -- course descriptions and times of races were elusive -- and, apparently, alcohol. There were reports competitors were required to drink a beer or shot for every lap completed.
We'd say it sounded like the most fun you can have with clothes on, but maybe clothes were optional. Word was winners in past championships were forced to accept either a tattoo or branding. Sounds about right for an event with the motto: "Putting the SIN back in single speed.''
Also, race headquarters: The Carousel Bar.
How very Alaska.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr