Iditarod Awards Banquet

The 2008 Iditarod Awards Banquet in Nome is covered in this article by Jon Little, and as usual, it’s a good read. A short excerpt:

King made some fun of himself for his now infamous 30 minute nap at Elim while Mackey snuck out and padded his lead. He talked about a phone call with his wife, Donna, from Unalakleet in which he said of Mackey, ” ‘I wish he’d just go away.’ Well , eventually he did. However, that’s not exactly what I had in mind.”

My favorite part was about Ramey Smyth, whose lead dog Babe was awarded the Golden Harness:

The Big Lake musher was unable to … utter a word, he was so full of emotion, and walked off the stage to a huge round of applause. Smyth’s mother, the late Lolly Medley, came up with the award, and used to sew a gold-colored harness for the winner.

Jon goes through the entire list of awards, explaining what they’re about and listing this year’s winners.