ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - Mitch Seavey became the oldest and fastest musher to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, in year marred by an abnormally high number of dog deaths.

After bringing in his dog team off the Bering Sea ice and under the famed burled arch on Front Street in Nome Tuesday, the 57-year-old winner greeted each of his dogs and thanked them with a frozen snack. He later posed with his two lead dogs, Pilot and Crisp.

"They get frustrated when they go too slow, so I just let them roll, which was scary because I've never gone that fast, that far ever, but that's what they wanted to do," he said.