ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — He beat cancer, but the treatment
cost him most of his teeth. He can't feel his fingers because of another
disease. It feels like his fingernails are being pushed off his body.
Life has become a different reality for Lance Mackey, a man
at the height of his sport just five years ago who today has trouble doing even
the most basic things required of a dog musher.
A scruffy Alaska character who looks much older than his 44
years, Mackey overcame throat cancer to win four straight Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Races. But another set of health problems may make this year's
thousand-mile race to Nome the last for Mackey.
Mackey suffers from Raynaud's syndrome, which limits
circulation to the hands and feet.
He can't use his swollen and blackened fingers in cold
weather. He can't manipulate the stiff digits enough to do the simple tasks a
musher must, like putting booties on his dog's paws to protect them from the
elements. His brother and fellow musher, Jason Mackey, who has his own team, has
agreed to stay with Lance at the back of the pack to help with his dogs.
It's a life-changing blow for a man who knows no other
lifestyle.
"I love this sport," he said before choking back
tears in a video posted on the Iditarod website. "I can't do it no
more."
Mackey comes from an Alaska mushing family. His father,
Dick, won the Iditarod in 1978. Lance's brother, Rick, won it in 1983.
View galleryLance Mackey warms up in the Tanana, Alaska
checkpoint …
Lance Mackey warms up in the Tanana, Alaska checkpoint
during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
Lance didn't make his mark for almost another 25 years. He
seemingly came out of nowhere to dominate the sport, winning four straight
titles from 2007-2010. He also twice did the unthinkable in dog mushing,
winning back-to-back thousand mile races with the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest
International Sled Dog Race with only a two-week rest between them.
Mackey told The Associated Press before this year's race
that he enjoyed every minute of that run, but admitted that pressure from fans
and problems in his personal life started to get to him.
"Lance was loved by the public for many of the same
reasons that it was hard for the mushers to accept him," said Danny
Seavey, 32, a former competitor and mushing tourism operator who works as a
media analyst.
Mackey is the guy who would go have a beer "or
whatever" with fans after a race, Seavey said. Alaskans loved how
accessible Mackey was and the way he defied authority. It wasn't a bad boy
image Mackey was trying to create.
"It's just actually who he was," Seavey said.
But now, Mackey is slowing down. The radiation treatment on
his throat destroyed his saliva glands. "That ultimately caused my teeth
to disintegrate," he said.
A dentist found and yanked "a bunch of abscessed
teeth." Mackey said the infections were pretty serious, but he is now
having dentists rebuild his teeth.
Then he was found to have Raynaud's, which severely limits
circulation, and is exacerbated by cold. To compensate, he's carrying gloves
and socks that are heated by battery power, and he's carrying solar panels in
his sled to recharge them.
He took last year off from racing, and is now trying to get
back to the point he was in 2010. He is rebuilding his kennel, has two new dog
handlers and a new sponsor in Forza10, an Italian dog food company.
Before this year's race, he said he would probably run the
Iditarod next year, and look at some sprint races in the Lower 48.
"I want to get back to the level I was at, no doubt
about it, but we'll see how my body reacts to that."
The reports from the Iditarod trail so far this year don't
look good. Even so, Mackey says he'll stay in the sport as long as he can.
"This is what I do," he said. "This is who I
am."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/health-issues-could-end-four-time-iditarod-winners-170918632.html
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