After 14 days, 1 hour and 49 minutes, Heather Siirtola and the Hardcore Husky Team arrived in Nome, Alaska, at 7:49 p.m. CST Sunday, finishing 74th out of the 79 teams remaining in the world's most famous dog sled race, The Iditarod Trail.

For the second year in a row, Siirtola, a native of Bismarck, completed the grueling 1,050-mile race from Anchorage to Nome. She cut two days off last year's time when her team finished in 16 days, 1 hour and 35 minutes. Siirtola started the race with 16 dogs, but finished with only eight, as soreness and an intestinal virus sidelined half the team.

Siirtola said the novelty had worn off some for this year's race, but physically it wasn't as taxing for her.

"It was hard on the dogs, but easy on me, so I had to be the strong one and pull them together," Siirtola said. "I'm really glad to be here, but I'm pretty tired."

The final day of the race for Siirtola provided a variety of difficulties. She was on the trail for nearly 12 hours.

"The temperatures were really warm, which made for a lot of slow going. The snow was really soft," Siirtola said. "At the end, the wind really started blowing and I couldn't see beyond the lead dog. I figured the wind was blowing 50 miles per hour sometimes."

There were a couple of times that Siirtola thought about pulling out of the race, especially when the intestinal virus forced her to use only eight dogs, who carried on for the entire second half of the race.

"There were a lot of injuries and illness this year. Things I just couldn't do anything about except take them off the team," Siirtola said.

She had set out with a goal of cutting four days off her time and finishing among the top 30 racers. But because of what her team accomplished with only eight dogs, Siirtola was satisfied with this year's attempt.

"I was down to eight dogs by the halfway mark and I really did give a lot of thought about dropping out," Siirtola said. "But I'm really glad I kept at it. I didn't know if I should push them any farther."

The dogs finished the race in great shape and rolled into Nome at a spirited pace of 12 mph. Siirtola received $1,000 for the effort, money which will cover just a small portion of the investment she's made.

The highlight of the race for Siirtola was to see a dog she didn't expect to make it through the race lead the last 500 miles with tail wagging.

"Snowgo, he's a big happy-go-lucky guy, a real people person. In one of the villages he led the entire team up onto a deck, cause he just wanted to hang out," Siirtola said. "He's a bigger than average dog and weighs about 58 pounds."

The next couple of days, Siirtola will be making preparations to get her dogs home. She plans on taking next year off from the Iditarod and training puppies for future exploits.

For the second year in a row Lance Mackey won the race finishing March 12 in a time of 9 days, 11 hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)