She and 2020 champion Ryan Redington were neck-and-neck during the final leg of the race.
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Erin Letzring hugs a lead dog and handler and former Beargrease marathon champion Keith Aili after winning the marathon by 7 seconds on Tuesday evening in Mineral Center. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)
Erin Letzring, of Skagway, Alaska, narrowly defeated 2020 champion Ryan Redington, of Wasilla, Alaska, to win the 37th annual John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon on Tuesday night.
Letzring, who was competing in her first Beargrease and was running nine dogs, arrived shortly after 6 p.m. at the finish, about 6 miles west of Grand Portage in Cook County.
Erin Letzring wins Beargrease in near photo-finish
Alaska musher beat her ex-husband by just 7 seconds to become the first woman to win the marathon since 1998. 7:40 pm, Feb. 2, 2021 ×
Erin Letzring hugs a lead dog and handler and former Beargrease marathon champion Keith Aili after winning the marathon by 7 seconds. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)
MINERAL CENTER In a near-photo finish stolen from the mushing movie Iron Will, Erin Letzring won the 37th John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon Tuesday evening by just 7 seconds over her fellow Alaskan Ryan Redington.
The two battled back and forth for the final leg of the 302-mile race, swapping the lead multiple times before Letzring pulled ahead for the final few hundred feet, emerging out of the dark to a stunned crowd of media and race officials bathed in television floodlights.
Baihly Warfield/WDIO
The mushers are seeing slower times this year due to warmer conditions and less snow on the trail compared to recent years.
Erin Letzring, Erin Altemus, Blake Freking, and Ero Wallin, a first time marathon racer and at 18 years old the race s youngest competitor, round out the top six mushers in the 300-mile race up Minnesota s North Shore.
They are all heading to the final checkpoint in Mineral Center, where they will all have a mandatory four-hour rest period. The final stretch takes them up to Grand Portage and back down to Mineral Center s finish line. The winner is expected to cross the finish line after sunset.
Blake Freking
Temperatures stayed in the upper 20s, so Letzring was keeping a close eye on her team s hydration. They dip a lot of snow on the run. So when the dogs are going, they ll take mouthfuls of snow to help keep themselves hydrated. But then mainly in the checkpoints, one of the first things you do is make sure you get some water back in the dogs so they do stay hyrdated, she said.
She left Trail Center with 11 of her 12 original dogs and was very happy with their performance. I have one younger dog on the team, and she is still a spunky spitfire, Letzring said. So that s nice to see when they re young and up-and-coming that they re still happy this far in the race and raring to go.