Iditarod entry fee up; purse gets cut

The entry fee for Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is going up, the purse is coming down, and still race organizers expect the "Last Great Race" to remain so popular they need to limit the field.

Dog endurance changes racers' strategies

Iditarod mushers are discovering on the trail what scientists have suggested in the laboratory -- that sled dogs are capable of greater feats of endurance than anyone thought.

Photos: Dogs of the 2008 Iditarod

Iditarod mushers accept honors

For a time Monday, the start to the finish of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for 62-year-old rookie Deborah Bicknell from Juneau was taking on hints of disaster.

Photos: Mackey's 2008 Iditarod victory

Smyth leads Iditarod pack for third

While Lance Mackey charged onto Front Street for his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race victory, more than a dozen teams rested 70 miles away early Wednesday morning on the banks of the Fish River.

DAY 13

Mackey's magical run in Iditarod, Quest

Hardworking blue-collar nice guy Lance Mackey from Fairbanks today owns the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race the way no one has since Doug Swingley at the dawn of the millennium.

Trail gambits throughout Iditarod history

Smyth leads Iditarod pack for third

Photos: Mackey's 2008 Iditarod victory

Drama plays out as rest of Top 10 finish

WHITE MOUNTAIN - While Lance Mackey charged onto Front Street for his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race victory, more than a dozen teams rested 70 miles away early Wednesday morning here on the banks of the Fish River.

DAY 12 - MACKEY WINS THE IDITAROD

Mackey proves Iditarod/Quest wins no fluke

Sled-dog racing pundits said it couldn't be done: Winning both the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest and the 1,100-mile Iditarod in one year, and both in little more than a month. But at 2:46 a.m. today, Lance Mackey and his dogs passed beneath the burled arch in Nome to do it again. Jeff King arrived in second place about 80 minutes later.

Drama plays out as rest of Top 10 finish

Front-running mushers stream across finish line

Photos: Mackey's 2008 Iditarod victory

Photos: Day 12, Nome finish

Updated standings

Buser takes a 130 mph detour

Front-running mushers stream across finish line

A pack of Iditarod mushers followed champion Lance Mackey and runner-up Jeff King across the Nome finish line this morning and early afternoon, creating a scrum for payouts as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race finished for the frontrunners.

Mackey and King ready for stretch run

Defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey held a nearly one-hour lead as teams prepared to leave White Mountain today for a final push to the finish line in Nome, but the race remained too close to call.

Mind games in play as leaders seek an edge

Snowmachine kills team dog on Yukon

Lead dog's ashes spread where he often ran best

20 closest finishes in Iditarod history

Updated standings

Mackey gains precious minutes on King

The Iditarod leaders marched into their mandatory eight-hour pit stop at White Mountain this morning with defending champ Lance Mackey holding a surprising 57-minute lead.

Mackey pushes hard to keep King at bay

Updated standings

20 closest finishes in Iditarod history

Lead dog's ashes spread where he often ran best

Snowmachine kills team dog on Yukon

Mind games in play as leaders seek an edge

Mackey pushes hard to keep King at bay

As the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race entered its final 100 miles, gritty, determined defending champion Lance Mackey had somehow forged a 50-minute lead over four-time winner Jeff King.

Trail map: Updated standings

Snowmachine kills team dog on Yukon

A dog in the team of Iditarod musher Jennifer Freking from Finland, Minn., died Sunday evening after being hit by a snowmachine near the village of Nulato, according to the Iditarod Trail Committee and Freking's Web site.

Mind games in play as leaders seek an edge

Lance Mackey and Jeff King had just traveled 45 miles from Shaktoolik along windswept ice, fighting a ground blizzard, below-zero wind chill and a nasty headwind. With visibility less than a mile, the two ran close together along the flattest terrain on the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail. Despite snow swirling around him, Mackey could turn his head and see King's team in the distance.

20 closest finishes in Iditarod history

The 2008 Iditarod is coming down to the wire between veteran Jeff King and recent can't-lose musher, Lance Mackey. We've got the top 20 closest finishes in Iditarod history, including the 1978 race decided by one second.

DAY 10

King, Mackey prepare for final charge

Defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey and four-time victor Jeff King pulled into the Koyuk checkpoint early this afternoon just 130 miles from the finish line on Nome's Front Street and a monumental victory -- no matter which musher wins.

Mackey, King duke it out on last stretch

Snowmachine hits, kills Iditarod dog

King and Mackey leapfrog up the coast

Snowmachine hits, kills Iditarod dog

Another dog in this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has died.

Photos: Day 8

Trail map: Updated standings

Mackey looks to recapture winning formula

Let the banter begin

King and Mackey leapfrog up the coast

Ekran's adventure just starting

Photos: Day 9

Mackey, King duke it out on last stretch

Defending champion Lance Mackey and four-time winner Jeff King waged a close head-to-head battle down the Seward Peninsula Monday morning as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race entered its final decisive hours.

Snowmachine hits, kills Iditarod dog

Photos: Day 9

Ekran's adventure just starting

King and Mackey leapfrog up the coast

Let the banter begin

Trail map: Updated standings

Photos: Day 8

King and Mackey leapfrog up the coast

Four-time champion Jeff King rolled into Unalakleet at the front of The Last Great Race for the first time. Ninety minutes behind the Denali Park musher was defending champ Lance Mackey, who had led the race from the halfway point of Cripple though the checkpoints along the Yukon River. But Mackey left the Bering Sea village 45 minutes ahead of King.

Photos: Day 9

Ekran's adventure just starting

Mackey looks to recapture winning formula

Let the banter begin

Trail map: Updated standings

Photos: Day 8

DAY NINE

Veteran King grabs Iditarod lead

UNALAKLEET -- The morning fog lifted just hours before four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King rolled into this Bering Sea village to claim the lead for the first time in The Last Great Race.

Mackey looks to recapture winning formula

Iditarod dog dies, musher scratches

Mackey remains the leader, but King is closing on him

Lanier, 67, surprises Iditarod veterans

Photos: Day 9

Trail map: Updated standings

Mackey looks to recapture winning formula

UNALAKLEET -- The morning fog lifted just hours before four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King rolled into this Bering Sea village to claim the lead for the first time in The Last Great Race.

Lanier, 67, surprises Iditarod veterans

Photos: Day 8

Lanier, 67, surprises Iditarod veterans

RUBY -- Locals gathered Friday afternoon atop a knoll overlooking the frozen Yukon River and waited for the next Iditarod musher to make his or her way into town.