European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Above Susan Butcher grins and hugs one of her dogs after winning the 1990 id Tarod race. Right late in the 1990 race Butcher Heads out onto the Frozen Bering sea along a lonely stretch of coast Ditardo Champion by Paul Dean los Angeles times it was a moment of warmth in a Chilly unyielding land. Twelve dozen alaskan huskies yelped growled ripped and howled from their hutches on thawing Muskeg and stretched wet paws toward Susan Butcher Butcher returned the adoration. She chanted. Quot buggy buggy Bugg Abeen the fastest dog there s Ever  her song was for slug go a Honey beige husky with a sore Paw it was raw from ice balls that formed Between his toes in March when he was leading Butcher s team to Victory in an 11-Day Streak of masochism known As the id Tarod sled dog race. It was slug go s first win it was Susan Butcher s fourth. Quot Duradee Duga Doo dug dog Quot that Call was for Granite Fie has won three Idit rods and says Butcher is the finest sled dog of this decade if Granite were a horse he d be secretariat then this child woman crouched deep among her dogs and the Spring softened Snow and wrapped arms around Elan s shaggy neck flopped on her belly on a plywood Doghouse to say boo to Tolstoy and wrinkled her nose against the wet Black plug of Heifer s nose. And Susan Butcher a emotionally stale from airlines and motels and real clothes mentally exhausted by 10 Days of Victory greetings Public speaking and a meeting with president Bush a finally was Home. Home that s Trail breaker Kennel five acres of Bush surrounding an 80-year-old log Cabin that once belonged to a Gold Rush Blacksmith. It is most of Eureka Elev. 270, pop 6. Just a scatter of mining shacks among stands of Silver Birch at the end of 140 Miles of dirt Road not far beneath the Arctic Circle Devotion to her dogs underlies Susan butchers obsession with winning for a decade she explains she has concentrated on a companionship that starts with a Puppy s first breath and produces dogs ready to drop for her a huskies that have made her not just the Best woman dog sled racer in the world but the Best dog sled racer in the world. Some frustrated mushers have suggested that a separate id Tarod race be staged one for men. In sour recognition of her fixation on winning Blind stubbornness to the Point of i politeness on the Trail and an easy acceptance of huge risks that repel Mere males she has been Given a nickname Ayatollah Butcher. A in any endurance athlete s life the id Tarod stands As a death wish a a lopsided Gamble against survival across 1,130 Frostbitten Miles Mountain ranges blizzards and Frozen seas Between Anchorage and Nome. Only two people have won the id Tarod four times a Rick Swenson 38, of two Rivers Alaska and Susan Butcher 35. A the race record is 11 Days one hour and 53 minutes. It belongs to Butcher. Her fifth id Tarod championship said Joe Reddington jr., a racer and son of the 1972 founder of the id Tarod May be considered an inevitability. If anyone can break the 10-Day Barrier believe other experts Susan Butcher will. A in the past Winter s schedule of sled dog races a marked by such contests As the John Beargrease Marathon and the Coldfoot classic a Butcher entered six events. She won four and was second in the others. Trails for next years Alaska Siberia race. Butcher has run her dogs in Switzerland and is a Friend of Gen. Colin Powell chairman of the joint chiefs of staff because both have been elected to memberships in the american Academy of achievement. Her racing has produced a major cottage Industry in her Home state and the smug legend of a million to shirts sold says Quot Alaska a where men Are men and women win the iditarod.1 rarely is Butcher an also ran except to a Media Darling like Granite. On this month s Victory tour the 9-year-old husky now retired to stud was Given his own room at the Ritz Carlton in St. Louis and the four seasons hotel in Washington . Letters from hotel managers were addressed to Quot or Granite Quot and propped against baskets of evian water from the French Alps and Silver platters of ground round Quot there were times Quot Monson joked a when we Felt the introduction would be Here s Granite who won the id Tarod three times with. Or. Urn the couple that owns  yet such world attention has Cost. Hers is life without television running water flush toilets or a Bathtub. There s a single Telephone hooked by satellite to a Seattle area code but that s for husband Dave Monson to use because Butcher regards a ringing phone As the ultimate intrusion and refuses to answer it. A run to the grocery store is a four hour rattle by truck to Fairbanks. Only in isolation approaching privation Butcher says can she maintain an uninterrupted focus on Breeding and training sled dogs. Only away from the noise stink and structures of Man can she intensify a unique personal bonding with her dogs. Only from Here can she concentrate on winning next years id Tarod. A what was the total frustration for the mushers is that Susan took three totally separate teams to the races a Butcher said. In conversation she often inserts herself within the narrative. Quot both Susan a a and b dogs blew away the other teams and took 10 hours off the record in the Beargrease. Quot the c team finished just seven minutes behind the Winner in another event and would have won it if Susan had t been sicker with flu than a  there Are few places in Alaska where this Happy woman with a smile stretching from Here to the aleutians can move unrecognized. She has visited with two presidents been commended by Legislatures won the medals and awards of world organizations and visited the soviet Union to counsel perestroika mushers and set resentment has been raised against Butcher by veterans who raced in obscurity for years because nobody cared much about the id Tarod a until a woman won. Then came reporters from sports illustrated and Abc wide world of sports and Australia and Japan said former Champion Swenson a she s a Good competitor but that Sall i can  then he said More Quot you could ask yourself what have they Butcher and Monson done for anyone else in the sport they just take take  because her trademark finish has always been a sprint a even after 11 Days of the punishment of the id Tarod a there Are whispers that Butcher feeds drugs to her dogs. Quot her teams go so fast at the end of the race Quot said Robin Jacobson of Squaw Lake minn., who finished 6th in this years id Tarod. Quot i can to understand a dog having a three or four Day adrenaline Rush. It would kill them. So that a where. There is doubt in a lot of  Monson a a lawyer and Public defender among Many former trades a finds All such suggestions slanderous. Racer Reddington thinks the accusation should be shovelled aside with Caribou droppings. But most important Jack Morris of Wasilla Alaska veterinary director of this year s id Tarod said there was routine urine testing men route and at the finish a of several dogs on Butcher s winning team. Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes monday