Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Tuesday, his 11th run on the route from Anchorage to Nome.
Seavey, 43, crossed the finish line just before 10:30pm local time. His previous best finish was fourth in 1998.
"I'm sort of in disbelief," Seavey said. "I think everybody's happy to have an Alaskan boy win the Iditarod."
PHOTO: AP
Seavey said he has imagined winning the race since he was a boy, racing around his home with a three-dog team.
"I'm in good shape. I got the wings on them," Seavey said earlier Tuesday, while resting his team for the required eight hours at White Mountain, 124km before Nome.
While Seavey was pleased with the way his race went, it hadn't been an easy ride.
"We have tougher races somewhere else, but I'm not sure where," the sleep-deprived musher said.
Seavey told AP in a 2001 interview that his dream of winning the race began as a child when he listened as his father, Dan Seavey, helped plan the first commemorative race to Nome in 1973.
Seavey said it didn't matter that he had only a three-dog team at the time.
"Every time I'd be running dogs by our house, I'd be imagining myself in the finish chute in Nome winning the Iditarod," he said.
The Iditarod, the longest sled dog race in the world, commemorates a 1,085km relay race from Nenana to Nome in February 1925, when dog teams successfully delivered serum to prevent an outbreak of diphtheria among children.
A record 87 mushers began the race's ceremonial start March 6 from downtown Anchorage.
The Iditarod has prize money of more than US$700,000.
The prize money for first place is US$69,000 and a new Dodge pickup truck worth US$41,410.
About one-third of this year's record field were rookies.
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