On this day in ...... 1986 (25 years ago today), Susan Butcher (left) set a speed record of 11 days 15 hours 6 minutes and won the Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. She was the 2d woman to win, as Libby Riddles had taken the 1,158-mile event the year before, but she was the 1st woman to dominate the sporting event. Butcher, an 11-year Alaska kennel owner and "former veterinary technician from Cambridge, Mass.," had entered the race every year since 1978. She would win again in 1987, 1988, and 1990. Butcher died of leukemia in 2006, at age 51. (photo credit)
(Prior March 12 posts are here, here, here, and here.)
