{"id":19287,"date":"2019-03-16T20:49:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T20:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2019\/03\/16\/peter-kaiser-takes-first-in-iditarod-marking-a-win-for-alaskan-natives\/"},"modified":"2019-03-16T20:49:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T20:49:28","slug":"peter-kaiser-takes-first-in-iditarod-marking-a-win-for-alaskan-natives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/peter-kaiser-takes-first-in-iditarod-marking-a-win-for-alaskan-natives\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Kaiser Takes First In Iditarod \u2014 Marking A Win For Alaskan Natives"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amanda Morris<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Peter Kaiser and his team of dogs take off at the start of the Iditarod race.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of John Wallace<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of John Wallace<\/p>\n

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Snow whipped past Peter Kaiser and his eight-dog team as they passed under the famous Burled Arch at the end of the grueling, 1,000-mile Iditarod sled dog race, cinching a first place win. <\/p>\n

After racing for miles in inky darkness across the Alaska wildnerness, Kaiser was greeted in Nome, Alaska by bright lights, cameras, and cheering fans chanting “Way to go Pete!” <\/p>\n

It was the 31-year-old’s tenth time competing in the Iditarod, but his first time winning the championship \u2014 making him the first musher of Yup’ik descent to ever win the race. <\/p>\n

Just after his finish at 3:39 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Kaiser raised both arms in a double-fist pump celebration. <\/p>\n

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\n Peter Kaiser celebrates his first-place victory at the finish line of the Iditarod race.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of John Wallace<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of John Wallace<\/p>\n

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“Honestly, I’ve heard this from many different people that have won, but it hasn’t sunk in,” he told NPR’s Melissa Block. “Like, you actually have to think about it pretty hard and you’re like, ‘oh man, I actually won this.'”<\/p>\n

Kaiser managed to edge out the defending champion, Joar Leifseth Ulsom, by 12 minutes. His winning time was nine days, 12 hours, 39 minutes and six seconds.<\/p>\n

“We just got some trail that the team really likes and we didn’t see much of that this race,” Kaiser told Alaska Public Media<\/a>. “My team really likes hard, fast trails where they can go fast, and that was probably the best type of trail for that kind of race, so when they got on that they really wanted to roar.”<\/p>\n