So what do you do with your life when your dad is Martin Buser, world famous dog team leader and four-time Iditarod champion? Well, I suppose you could move to the lower 48 and try to blend in with the crowd, maybe take up the accounting trade or open a fruit stand. But how likely is that? No, if you’re Martin Buser’s offspring then you’re pretty much resigned to joining the family business raising and racing sled dogs.

Rohn is still just a teenager but he has already won the Iditarod Jr. and is now preparing for his very first run in the real Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. You’d think the pressure to follow in dad’s footsteps might be tough to handle, but he seems pretty level headed in this short interview.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKzUaO5trdk[/youtube]

Meet your 2007 Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race champion Lance Mackey, who crossed the finish line in Nome at 8:08 local time last night, a full two hours ahead of second-place finisher Paul Gebhardt. The Mackey rocket sled finished the grueling 1,150-mile race in just nine days, five hours, eight minutes, and 41 seconds. For his effort, the veteran musher won $69,000 in cash and a brand new pickup truck.

Mackey becomes the first musher in history to win back-to-back major dog sled races in the same year, having just won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest a few weeks ago. How tough of a feat is that? Imagine winning the Tour de France and then turning right around and winning it again, or maybe winning the Stanley Cup by playing two best-of-seven series against two different teams. Or for you Americans out there, think of finishing the Crab Feast at Red Lobster then going straight to the Olive Garden for all-you-can-eat past bowls. Yeah, it’s that tough.

Mackey also becomes the third in his family to win the Last Great Race; both his father and his brother are previous Iditarod champions. (Now maybe they’ll get off his back about what a slacker he is!) Strangely, though, all three won the race wearing bib #13. (Cue creepy music.)

As for Gebhardt, he takes home $64,300 in prize money and can add yet another chip to his shoulder; the musher from Kasilof, Alaska, has played bride’s maid once before in the Iditarod and placed third last year.

Meanwhile, there are 58 teams still out on the trail. Young Zack Steer and Martin Buser both left Safety within two minutes of each other and are sprinting for third place; Jeff King held a two-hour lead over Ed Iten when they left White Mountain in the race for fifth place.

Three mushers, though, were still back at Anvik about 500 miles from the finish at Nome. Ellen Halverson, a rookie from Wasila, Alaska (but a native North Dakotan), is currently the top contender for the Red Lantern Award.

Okay, everybody over to the Polaris Bar for the wet t-shirt contest. Yeah!

Martin Buser’s probably never had a meal this good, nor this deserved. The four-time Iditarod champion was the first musher to reach the Yukon River checkpoint, earning him a gourmet meal and a prize of $3,500. Said the veteran musher: “Pretty awesome.” Pretty awesome indeed, considering the couple mishaps Buser has suffered so far on the trail.

Closing in on the halfway point at the ghost town of Iditarod, Buser hit his knee on a tussock so badly that he passed out from the pain. I have no idea what a tussock is, but if you hit your knee one I bet it stings pretty badly. Later in the race, Buser hit a stump and lost thirteen of his dogs when the gangline snapped. He finally caught up to them about 45 minutes later, continuing on the trail with just three dogs and pushing power.

Pretty awesome also because Buser had a 1 hour, 15 minute lead over defending champion Jeff King when he reached Yukon River. With about 500 miles to go to Nome, that’s a pretty good margin, though this race is still wide open. The latest standings have King in first place, having left Eagle Island at 12:55; Buser was five minutes behind him.

Bringing up third place this morning was Lance Mackey. Apparently the Mackey rocket sled has run out of gas because he had dropped to fourth place by the time he reached Eagle Island, having been passed up by Paul Gebhardt.

In other Iditarod trail news, Deborah Bicknell was located yesterday after she failed to check in on time. An airplane spotted her on an old part of the trail mushing towards Rohn; apparently she took a wrong turn and ended up on the older part of the trail. (How many times do I have to remind you people: Bring a map.) Bicknell was in last place when she got lost and the wayward turn didn’t help things any, so she later decided to scratch. But at least she was safe and sound.

Currently, Iditarod rookie Heather Siirtola is listed in last place and a top candidate for the red lantern award. The 29-year old North Dakotan moved to Alaska in 2003 to learn the trade and train with dogs. She now has her own kennel with about 25 dogs. Chin up, Heather, you’ve only got 722 miles to go.