A relieved, saddened, thrilled Aliy Zirkle nails down 3rd in her toughest Iditarod

NOME — A big smile splashed across Aliy Zirkle's face Tuesday morning as she drove her 13 dogs down Front Street toward the finish line.

Was she happy? Relieved? Exhausted?

Perhaps a little of all three. Clearly, Zirkle's 16th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was the Two Rivers musher's most trying as she delivered a fifth-consecutive top-five finish.

"It was really hard this year," Zirkle said as spectators chanted her name. "It was really hard physically and emotionally, but I guess that's life itself, you know? And people are really supportive of me, so I guess I better hold up my end of the bargain."

Early Saturday, Zirkle told a race judge at the Nulato checkpoint that a snowmachiner had tried to kill her. Arnold Demoski, 26, was arrested and said he was driving his snowmachine drunk when he hit the sled dogs of Zirkle and four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King.

On Tuesday in Nome, Zirkle walked down her line of dogs, petting each one. Staffers from her kennel fed the team frozen beef and salmon, and Nome Mayor Richard Beneville handed Zirkle a bouquet of roses that he said someone from the crowd had passed to him.

Zirkle described the support she gets from Alaskans as "amazing."

"Everyone goes through hard times in their life. I guess I count on myself and my dogs and that's kind of what I did, and then Alaska like talked back and every checkpoint I went through, people were so supportive and I couldn't just be by myself," she said. "It turned out I was with everyone."

She said there were no all-star dogs on her team, "but they all came through at different times, and we did it."

Zirkle gave her father, Doug Zirkle, a big hug at the finish. He said he was "relieved" she had finished the grueling race.

After Zirkle walked the perimeter of the snowy path under the burled arch, talking to the crowd, two people stood on each side of her and walked her to a truck. They took off.

In the past few days, Zirkle has said she didn't want to go into detail about what happened outside Nulato. Not yet.

But when asked about the impact it had as she took her eight-hour break in White Mountain, 77 miles from the finish line, she said, "It changed my life."