Mackey looking over his shoulder again

Lance Mackey doesn't have a sit down sled, but if he ever gets one, he might consider putting a swivel seat on it. After all he has been looking over his shoulder a lot lately. It happened last month he won the Yukon Quest 1000 mile sled dog race. "I think my heads on backwards. I've been looking over my shoulder for the last 100 miles." Mackey stated referring to his slim lead over Ken Anderson in the latter stages of that race. With 77 miles left to the Iditarod finish, Mackey has to worry about 4 time Iditarod winner Jeff King catching up to him as he waits out his mandatory 8 hour layover at the White Mountain checkpoint.

King has been hounding Mackey since the race entered the Yukon River a bit past the half way point. He has admitted passing Mackey's team on a few occasions while Mackey had pulled off to rest, but he has only entered one checkpoint in front of him at Unalakleet. King has been letting Mackey rest a bit longer at the checkpoints and then catching up to him with a faster paced team on the trail. That strategy failed him at the Elim checkpoint however as it was reported that Mackey successfully snuck out of that checkpoint without King knowing about it. Mackey was on the trail for 70 minutes before King woke up and was able to depart, and he was not able to make up much of that difference as the trail worked its way over the 1,000-foot Kwiktalik Mountain summit that mushers call "Little McKinley." King arrived at the White mountain checkpoint 57 minutes after Mackey.

Both teams will be off their layover at White mountain later tonight with Mackey enjoying a 57 minute lead on the departure. While that lead is significant, King has not given up yet. He will likely drop 2 dogs leaving him with 14 compared to Mackey's 11. King hopes that will translate into a faster pace as they still need to negotiate the pass over the Topkok Hills. Either way, Mackey will still be looking over his shoulder.