It’s three in the morning and Lance Mackey sits in a folding camp chair. His hands are battered, voice hoarse, skin still red from the cold. Outside the temperature is 20° below Fahrenheit, appreciatively warm for this remote checkpoint, which sits low along a tributary of the Yukon River and typically boasts race temps of minus-40°F or colder.  

This is day five of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest sled dog race, run annually along historic gold rush routes between Fairbanks Alaska and Whitehorse Yukon. Lance is just over halfway in the first of two 1,000-mile races he will run within one month.  Until a few years ago, running both the Iditarod and the lesser known but tougher Yukon Quest in the same year was rare. Then came Lance, turning the sport of mushing on end.  He not only ran both races in the same year, he won them both in the same year – twice.

     But tonight, those victories seem far away. He’s just run 10 hours straight through the night in subthe man in the coat arctic temperatures in remote Yukon Territory. Ten hours is a long time to do anything, but Lance wasn’t just doing anything, he was doing everything.  He was running behind the team while pushing the sled up the 4,002-foot King Solomon’s Dome.  He was steering his 250-pound loaded sled through the twists and turns of the deteriorating mining roads, manhandling his gear through tight turns, bulbous glaciated streams and other continuous obstacles.  Most importantly, he was caring for his team of 13 dogs as cheerleader, coach and personal trainer for each one of these amazing athletes.  It helped keep his head out of his own physical misery.

At this point in the race, Lance can’t feel his fingers where the nerves were damaged by radiation from his recent battle with throat cancer. They have been numb for days but to compete he must force them through the dexterity of race details and dog care in the bone-chilling cold. He has to work relentlessly to keep water thawed in the harsh temperaturesbecause his cancer-ravaged throat is unable to produce saliva and he needs to drink constantly. He tries to block out the pain of his knee where the chemotherapy left him without cartilage and the relentless rubbing of bone on bone combined with the cold is taking its toll. Add this to the typical maladies of a long distance musher – sleep deprivation, exhaustion, dehydration, hallucinations, injuries, frostbite – and you wonder what would have possessed someone like Lance to choose this as a profession.

Life as a distance musher is tough – a fact recognized by Sports Illustrated, which named Lance one of the “Toughest Athletes in the World” in 2008. Not only is the racing and extensive training grueling, but the astronomical costs and time needed to develop and manage a kennel of world-class sled dogs yearround leaves very few mushers with any additional money or energy.  

But Lance is no stranger to hard work. As a kid, he spent winters at the edge of nowhere in Coldfoot, Alaska, above the Arctic Circle, doing mind-numbing training runs and back-breaking trail work with his dad, mushing legend Dick Mackey. Later, when Lance and his wife, Tonya, were starting out, they lived hand to mouth, raising a family on his arduous seasonal work as a commercial fisherman in the dangerous waters off the Alaska Coast while Tonya taught herself wiring, plumbing and carpentry to keep their cabin in one piece.

    In spite of it all, the amazing thing you notice when you watch Lance is how much fun he is having. So is his team. Even after a 10-hour run, they arrive at the checkpoint jumping and barking to continue. Lance and his dogs have a pure love of the sport and each other that is contagious.

I’ve been on the trail with Lance in a few races. Of course, I only see him in the beginning. If I’m lucky enough to have drawn a start number ahead of him I always look forward to the point where I can feel that magic closing in on my team. I don’t even have to glance back. It is palpable before it is visible – the sound of momentum, power and force coming down the trail. I anticipate it like the rush of a wave before it crashes over you. First you feel it, then you hear the sound of the team behind you, coming fast and smooth. I stop my dogs and watch the beauty of the team flow by like a cool breeze on a hot day. Then comes the characteristic Mackey smile, the friendly wave and the kind words of a true sportsman and you know, like the unexpected shooting star that leaves you a bit breathless, you have just witnessed something very special.  That’s Lance Mackey.

The Canada Goose special edition Lance Mackay parka can be found in all Harry Rosen stores while supplies last.