Canadian has early lead in Iditarod sled dog race

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Both knees are shot, injected with synthetic cartilage until he can have surgery next summer. His right arm is still healing from a major operation to fix a staph infection. He continues to deal with other side effects of cancer.

But Lance Mackey is gunning for his fourth consecutive win in the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which started Sunday in Willow.

Canadian Sebastian Schnuelle regained the early lead in the race Monday afternoon when he became the first musher to leave the Rainy Pass checkpoint, about 224 miles beyond Anchorage. He rested there only five minutes before heading to Rohn. Following him out of Rainy Pass were John Baker and Warren Palfrey. Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof was the first musher to reach Rainy Pass, but appeared to be resting.

Going into the race, Mackey said his 16-dog team looked sharp, consisting of new youngsters and a core of veterans that are capable of beating 70 other teams to the finish line in Nome on Alaska’s western coast.

The Fairbanks musher, whose father and brother are past Iditarod winners, said he feels as competitive as he’s been in the past, despite a host of health issues that make you wonder how he can even get to the trail.

“I know. A lot of people say the same thing,” he said. “But I make up mentally what I’m lacking a little bit physically.”

That motto could apply to his entire mushing career since he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2001 and underwent extensive surgery as well as radiation treatment and the loss of his salivary glands. After returning to the sport he went on to become the only musher ever to win both the Iditarod and the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in the same year, taking about two weeks off between races. It’s a feat he has accomplished twice.

Mackey speaks openly about using medical marijuana on the trail as a post-cancer painkiller and appetite enhancer. He also talks about facing a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession after being found with a small amount at the Anchorage airport in January, after his medical marijuana card had expired.

For this race, he said he’s staying away from pot. That’s because the Iditarod for the first time is testing mushers for alcohol and illegal drugs, although a provision allowing testing has been on the rule books since 1984. Officials say exemptions include Marinol, a government-approved drug that contains the active ingredient in marijuana, but Mackey said he’s even laying off on his own prescription.

Mackey believes the policy is directed at him. He said other competitors have complained that pot gives him an advantage.

“We’re going to prove some people wrong,” he said. “The dogs are the ones doing all the work, for the most part.”

The one Mackey is watching out for is four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King.

“He’s always the team to beat, in my opinion,” Mackey said.

This looks like the last time Mackey and King will square off in the Iditarod. King, 54, said he’s running his last Iditarod.

Mackey said he’ll never run the Iditarod and Yukon Quest in the same year again. “My body’s just getting beat up,” he said.