It’s 11.30pm. Feeling: content.
They’re home. Aliy, Mismo, Spark, Dutch, Bruno, Decaf, Five, Jefe, Nomex, QT, Rodney and Violet crossed the finish line at 5:26pm in 4th place to cheers, chants and admiration.
Here’s a few pics
I captured the siren – so exciting to hear that after all these days of just seeing a green avatar move down the trail.
Here they are crossing the line – looking FANTASTIC!
Returned Dog Update
Amber and Driver are at Linda’s and very happy to be somewhere familiar and reunited with each other.
So proud of Aliy and all the wonderful 14 athletes with four paws👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️🖤. A special shout out and pats and cuddles for Jefe, actually make that mega pats and cuddles. So proud of the boy look forward to hearing how he preformed and l am sure Daisy was cheering Aliy and the team from the kennel . Rest up team and happy trails home ❤️🖤. Joanne Bechaz and Denali 🐾
Love those smiles….they are all looking quite proud! Congratulations! Rest well. Cheers from The Straw Ladies!!
YES…welcome to NOME!! What a tough race….this had everything, and a 4th place finish is AWESOME! Way to go Aliy and the Red Team….way to go!!!
The dogs looked fantastic coming to the finish line…bet they enjoyed the steaks! Looking forward to seeing them resting peacefully in the dog yard in the coming days!
Aliy, congratulation on taking 4th place. We met you about August 15, 2018 when you boarded our train bound for Denali. You gave a talk about yourself and the great race. We were with Princess tours. We followed the race cheering Aliy, Aliy, go Aliy go. It was about ten pm last night (EST) when we found out you had crossed the finish line. We gave a shout out of joy for you and your dogs. If we were in Nome we would buy you a coffee. It brought us joy having met you and gave us a connection to The Iditarod. Have a blessed day.,
From,
Patty & Bill Heald
I am so happy for Aliy and her team! They did so well!
Congratulations Aliy on an amazing finish! 😀🐶🐶 It must feel wonderful to have traveled across the entire state of Alaska with a dog team pulling you. What an incredible experience!
Thank you for the pictures and the video.
Safe travels back to the kennel.
What a fabulous finish! I watched it live, and that’s nice, but your videos always capture it where we can see the team a little easier and it’s such a beautiful sight to see them trotting happily down the chute. Thank You! I’m so very happy Driver and Amber are with Linda. Now Commando can quit bugging Linda. I hope the human team members are all getting some much needed rest. Love SPKennel!
And I always enjoy seeing the dogs sleeping nicely after the race. Thanks for those pictures.
YEAYYYYYY!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN SPK FOR A GREAT RACE!!!!!!!!
Aliy and doggies and SPK support team – great job – you’ve earned a nice long rest after a grueling race.
So happy SPK is safely in Nome.
Thank you all for sharing the pics and videos. Can’t wait to hear more.
Hat’s off to you again
Congrats on a great race. This was an incredible experience to watch again this year. Every race has its challenges but this one seemed like as soon as one hurdle was cleared, the next one popped up. Aliy in true Aliy fashion, cleared every one of them. Wish I had that tenacity. Rest up and enjoy the time you have there to just be. Thank you for all the posts, updates, and keeping us in the loop! Give Decaf a little scruff from us. Good boy!
Great job SPK Red Team! So happy to see Aliy try a different team composition and race schedule this year. It may not have worked exactly as she wished but it looks like it helped keep the team strong till the end. A tough trail that they all fought through to the finish. Enjoy some down time!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Wow, what a race. So happy for Aliy and team. Impressive as always and so inspiring to watch them battle everything the trail could offer up this year. You guys are rock stars. Thanks for all the updates, videos, audio clips etc throughout the race. So much fun. Kudos to the entire crew. I can only imagine the hard work and dedication necessary to get to Nome each year.
Safe travels home,
Stephanie Kuhns
Congrats Aliy and team – you are all heroes. A special high five to my buddy Decaf on making the trek to Nome. WooHoo!!!!
WOOF WOOF WOOF
There is something about the sound of the horn announcing a finisher that is so evocative…
– Awesome post with words so well chose, slide shows with captions, sound recordings, so much to enjoy!
– Red Team including Crew, who made this an amazing ID to follow – should be proud of itself, JMO
– GREAT plan for this ID – including no mishaps that made the front page – only good happy stuff –
What a symbol Red Team makes for this Great Race – enjoyed it so very much thanks to SP Kennel and its magnificent website.
Can’t thank you enough!!!
WOOF
Slide shoes rock!!!
Mismo looks so incredibly proud of himself, as he should be.
These are wonderful pictures and video. The dogs look excellent arriving and so cuddly and comfy resting. From the line up on arrival, I’m guessing someone told Violet there would be lamb snacks in Nome. 😉
I am relieved Amber and Driver are with Linda. Thank you for that news.
Congratulations Aliy, Amber, Bruno, Commando, Dutch, Decaf, Five, Driver, Jefe, Mismo, Nomex, Rodney, QT, Spark and Violet.
I’m so proud of you! I went to work in the best mood last night thinking about what you’ve accomplished over the last 10+ days.
Moira, I came back to watch the arrival video again. You always get such a great angle of the team. Violet trots in with her teammates and immediately disappears from the camera, and while I noticed that when I first watched, I do realize why. Violet went right to Moira’s feet. <3 Because there is something in Nome more important than lamb snack, and that's family. Thank you for being there, for us, for Aliy and Allen and for the pups. <3
Congrats on another remarkable run. we’ve been glued to the tracker and videos the whole way and impressed as always by the grace, cheer and strength – not to mention spectacular dog care – Aliy always shows. Great pictures along the way too. The one from KTUU was pretty rock star! https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Iditarod-Day-11-Peter-Kaiser-reaches-Safety-507078771.html
Congrats for the fine finish Aliy and all the SP Dogs! Your fans are all so proud of you and your team.
Tough race this year with all the challenges thrown at ya. What a smile at the end Aliy! You are special!
It’s impossible to not smile as I read the post, look at the photos, and most of all, read all the great comments.
..
It’s been great all the way around
Kudos to you all for completing the race and with a 4th place finish in what seems to have been unique weather conditions. Today marks just over a year of following SPK. What an insight! May the care you show towards others be reflected back upon you. I wish you good peace and satisfaction during your downtime after the race.