“I couldn’t think of anybody better to travel with,” said Jason Mackey of his brother and fellow Iditarod musher, Lance Mackey.
The brothers have been traveling as a duo since Tanana, where Lance’s hands and feet first gave him trouble in the sub-zero temperatures. The long-time Iditarod veteran lost feeling in his fingers, and was struggling to care for his team of fourteen dogs.
His brother Jason, whose dog team was also recovering in Tanana when Lance arrived, said the pair decided to stick together after that.
But Jason said he’s not doing his brother any favors.
Rather, he described their combined race as a partnership — help with dog care in exchange for racing insights from one of the Iditarod greats. And when it comes to Lance Mackey’s wealth of knowledge, Jason said he’s (mostly) grateful.
“It kind of pissed me off at first,” he laughed. “Because here we are working together, and we’d stop to snack or do booties… and I’d look up and he was gone. And I’d question him about it, and he’d [say]: ‘I thought you said you wanted to learn how to race.'”
It’s clear, however, that blood runs deep in the Mackey clan. When told that his determination and light-hearted quips sound a bit like those of his older brother, Jason took it as a compliment.
“I learned from the best,” he said. “No doubt about it.”
For his part, Lance Mackey isn’t looking to hold his younger brother back.
“I told [Jason], now is the time to cut the cord,” said Lance in Huslia yesterday. “He has to go. He has a beautiful dog team. He’s in a position to hit the top twenty…but he can’t lollygag and worry about me.”
In addition to health troubles, Lance said his dogs’ inexperience is contributing to his slower pace this year. He told KNOM’s Matthew Smith that his team, made up of mostly two year-olds, has the strength and stamina — but not necessarily the “head” to understand that they can push through brutal 40-below weather and “still make it” to Nome.
The only way to prove such a thing to his team, Lance said, is to make the race enjoyable again — and that means a slowing things down a bit.
“I have to back it off…and try to make it fun for them again,” he said. “The last run just wasn’t that fun. Not for the driver, not for the dogs.”
