Sled Dog race won in record time

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Iditarod musher Aliy Zirkle, from Two Rivers, Alaska, mushes between the checkpoints of White Mountain and Safety, the last checkpoint before the finish line in Nome. Zirkle was the second musher to leave the White Mountain checkpoint during the 2014 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Monday, March 10, 2014. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hallinen)

Dallas Seavey ran a blistering pace to rally from third place and win his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Tuesday in a record-breaking finish, after a sudden storm blew the front-runner out of the competition and kept another musher minutes away from her first win.

Seavey, 27, was the first musher under the famed burled arch finish line in Nome. He flew through the last 77 miles to catch the two mushers in front of him, four-time champion Jeff King and Aliy Zirkle, who finished in second.

Seavey finished the race in eight days, 13 hours, 4 minutes and 19 seconds, easily breaking the previous record set in 2011. Zirkle was 2 minutes 22 seconds behind him.

Zirkle also finished second in 2012 and 2013.

King was cruising to a record-tying fifth win when a gust of wind blew him off course, effectively taking him out of the mix just miles from Nome. Until then, he had a safe lead of an hour.

Seavey holds the record for being the youngest champion ever; he was 25 when he won in 2012.