Record, 4Th Win Not Good Enough For Butcher

NOME, Alaska - Susan Butcher, still enjoying the glow of her fourth victory in the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, is talking about going for No. 5, and trying for perfection.

``I made so many mistakes,'' she said minutes after winning the 1,158-mile Anchorage-to-Nome trek in record time yesterday. ``I'd like to come into the Iditarod again and have a race like I had in 1986. I held that lead for a ways.''

Her time this year was 11 days, 1 hour, 53 minutes, 23 seconds. That was a record, beating by more than 10 minutes her 1987 time, which was set on another route. The previous record for the slightly longer northern route - also set by Butcher in 1986 - was 11 days, 15 hours, 6 minutes.

Butcher said the credit belongs to her dogs.

``This team had power coming out of its ears,''she said. ``Not so much charging up hills, but stamina. It just had it.''

``This team has been absolutely incredible. I've never had a team go as strong as this.''

Butcher finished with 11 dogs. During her 11 days on the trail she had to drop three veteran dogs that pulled her to previous victories.

She won $50,000 in first-place money plus $25,000 from one of her sponsors. Defending champion Joe Runyan finished second.

Various obstacles stood in the way of a record this year. The 70 mushers who began the race March 3 had to contend with the deepest snow in a quarter-century, ash from Redoubt Volcano, some unseasonably warm days that tired their dogs, buffalo on the trail and hunger-crazed moose.

At least two mushers had run-ins with moose, which tangled their lines and stomped their dogs.

The only other four-time winner, Rick Swenson, was leading near the halfway point but had to turn back and have his team checked by a veterinarian after one such encounter. He was running in sixth yesterday.

The only other woman to win the grueling race, Libby Riddles, watched Butcher's finish on sunny streets in minus 10-degree weather.

``She outraced these guys. She maintained her dog team better,'' Riddles said. ``You make your luck.''

Since Riddles became the first woman to win in 1985, women have won the race five of the past six years, inspiring a T-shirt that reads, ``Alaska: Where men are men and women win the Iditarod.''

The race, named after an old supply route to the gold-mining districts of interior Alaska, was inspired by a 1925 relay of diptheria serum to Nome, which was hit hard by an outbreak of the disease.

Butcher began 68th of 70 mushers but moved into the lead just after the halfway point and alternated with Runyan and Lavon Barve. She took the lead for good Monday.

Seven teams dropped out and one was disqualified. The remaining teams were strung out 600 miles back and were expected to straggle into Nome for a week or more.

Butcher, 33, said she soon may take some time away from racing.

``I'm going to go for a family,'' she said. ``I have to do that sooner rather than later. I want to get a fifth Iditarod win . . . (but) I want to retire from sled dog racing, the Iditarod for a few years.''