Butcher Wins Iditarod in Record

NOME, Alaska — Susan Butcher and her team of nine dogs blazed a faster pace than archrival and neighbor Rick Swenson to win the 1,150-mile Anchorage-to-Nome Iditarod Sled Dog Race today for the second year in a row.

Butcher, 31, wearing sneakers and a red snowsuit, finished the tortuous trek across the toughest terrain in Alaska in record time--11 days, 2 hours, 5 minutes and 13 seconds, knocking 13 hours off the record she set last year. She picked up the $50,000 first prize and deprived four-time winner Swenson of the distinction of being the only person ever to win the Iditarod more than once.