Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- It took three tries and advice she usually reserves for her clients, but Big Lake area psychiatrist Ellen Halverson finally made it to the finish line of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The 46-year-old came in last, passing under the burled arch in Nome on March 21, eight days after winner Lance Mackey. But Halverson didn't mind bringing up the rear.

"I didn't care. I just wanted to finish," she said.

Back at work in her Wasilla office, Halverson this week said the fact she finally finished the race has yet to sink in. All she felt crossing the finish line was relief. "At that point you're so wiped out, you kind of feel numb," she said.

For her efforts, she earned an Iditarod finisher's belt buckle and the coveted Red Lantern trophy awarded each year to the musher who finishes last. She added the latter to a collection of red lanterns she said she's earned from finishes in other mushing races.

"Apparently, I have a talent for coming in last," she laughed.

A self-admitted mushing addict who got hooked on the sport in the early 1990s, Halverson said her trip this year was far from smooth.

She survived two broken sled runners, stiff winds on the Bering Sea coast and a wrong turn that almost took her past the finish line in Nome.

But it was a far cry from her previous two Iditarods in which she scratched after her teams quit on her. In both cases, she said she made errors that cost her the dogs' confidence.

"Even though I'm a psychiatrist, I think dog psychology is way different," she said. "I didn't understand the importance of being consistent with them."

In her rookie year in 2002, she thought her team could make the short 20-mile journey from McGrath to Takotna before taking a mandatory 24- hour layover, she said. Her dogs thought otherwise, and waged a sit-down strike on the trail. Halverson eventually got the team going, but it took her 22 hours to cover the 20-mile stretch.

The next year, she made it past Takotna, but ran into trouble leaving the coastal community of Unalakleet when she lost the trail in a slough just out of town and the dogs again questioned her leadership. A trail crew finally helped her get the team going, but getting outside help meant an automatic dismissal from the race, she said.

This year, she said, she vowed not to take any part of the trail for granted, even at the last checkpoint 22 miles from the finish.

"Even in Safety, there was a big hill to climb," she said. "I just wasn't going to relax until I got there (to Nome)."

She said throughout the race she stuck close to two other mushers at the back of the pack, and relied on some well-worn advice.

"I'd tell myself: I'm going to get to Nome. Just take it one checkpoint at one time," she said.

Even so, she had one last adventure before the finish.

In Nome, mushers are supposed to turn off the Bering Sea ice and onto Front Street. A police officer is usually posted to show teams the way, she said. But Halverson arrived just before three in the morning. The police officer was otherwise occupied and she missed the turn. Finally, she looked over to her right, she said. There were lights. She heard people.

"I thought, 'Well, I think I'm in the wrong place,' " she said.

She managed to find a driveway by a popular restaurant, Fat Freddy's, and popped up on Front Street.

Halverson said she thought this race was to be her last. But now that she has finished, she said, "It's really hard for me at this point to say I'd never do it again. I want to do it better enough to improve on the mistakes."