Susan Butcher Mushes to 4th Iditarod Win

Susan Butcher drove her inexperienced dog team across the finish line in record time today to win her fourth Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, covering the 1,161-mile distance in 11 days, 1 hour, 53 minutes and 23 seconds.

Butcher, 35, of Manley, Alaska, drove her 11-dog team along Nome’s Front Street to the cheers of onlookers about 11 a.m. and claimed the $50,000 top prize.

She tied the record of four Iditarod victories held by Rick Swenson of Two Rivers, Alaska. Her winning time beat the record she set in 1987 by 11 minutes and 50 seconds.

Butcher’s nearest competitor in the field of 62 mushers still in the race was 1989 champion Joe Runyan of Nenana, Alaska. Runyan chased Butcher but could not catch her despite his 15-dog team. He won $35,000 for his second-place finish.

Butcher, who held off Runyan’s challenge on the final race stretch along the frozen shore of the Bering Sea, told officials at the finish line she could not completely explain her success.

“I don’t know why I was so fast,” she said.

Last year, the situation was reversed, with Butcher chasing Runyan down the final stretch of the race along the frozen coast in northwest Alaska.

Swenson, the other four-time winner of the race, lost valuable time at the beginning of the race when an angry moose on the trail attacked his sled, injuring one of his dogs.

Women have won the Iditarod five out of the past six years in one of the few professional sports in the world where men and women compete directly against each other. However, men continue to make up the overwhelming majority of entrants in the grueling endurance test.

Butcher said she was hampered by the absence of race-seasoned lead dogs in her team.

“It’s an untested team,” she said.