DULUTH – The final stretch of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon was called "no man's land," one mile of trail where regular race etiquette doesn't apply.
For about 300 miles, any time a musher wanted to pass a competitor, he or she would have to "call trail," prompting the musher in the lead to pull over so the other could go by.
But mushers Erin Letzring and Ryan Redington were neck and neck when they reached that last part of the trail, where teams no longer must yield to gaining opponents on the narrow, wooded course. Whoever reached no man's land first was likely going to win the race, the longest sled dog event in the Lower 48 states.
"I tried really hard to do that, but in the end we just ran out of trail," said Redington, who finished this year's Beargrease in second place, seven seconds behind Letzring.
The thrilling end to the nearly 2½-day contest was the closest in race history. The small group of media, race organizers and dog team handlers waiting at the finish line could not tell which musher was in front as two dots of light from headlamps hurtled through the woods in Grand Portage.
Letzring and Redington, who were previously married, said they passed each other multiple times during the last leg of the race. Some of their dogs came from the same bloodline.
"They liked seeing their buddies earlier on, but dogs are very competitive, too," Letzring said. "When we come up on a team and were passing them, the dogs definitely get jazzed up and want to go on by them — regardless of whether they're friends or not."
The race was Letzring's first full Beargrease marathon, though she's been attending the event for years as a handler for different teams. She was the first woman to win the marathon in more than two decades. A photographer captured a shot of Letzring's brother throwing his arms in the air as she crossed the finish line.
