Hello, everybody. It took him 8 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds with an average speed of 5.33 miles per hour to bring Lance Mackey's four-year dominance to an end, but Kotzebue's John Baker in that record time was the first to cross the Burled Arch in Nome Tuesday morning to win the 2011 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race; he's also the first Alaska Native musher since Gerald Riley in 1976 to do so. For his accomplishments, Baker receives a check for $50,400 plus the keys to a new Dodge Ram truck.

And Baker is not alone. Also breaking Martin Buser's 2002 record was runner-up Ramey Smyth; he arrived over an hour later followed by Hans Gatt in third place at 3:24 pm Alaska Time. And as of publish time, 2011 Yukon Quest champion Dallas Seavey just arrived at 5:27 pm.

Oh, yeah...what about ol' Lance? Right now, he's in White Mountain, and is expected to head to Front Street at the crack of dawn Wednesday morning. But right now, it's all about John Baker, the man who has done the impossible to finally claim victory in 39th annual running of The Last Great Race. So long and stay strong.