DAWSON CITY 'There's more than one person run this race,' said Ed Hopkins, the winner of last week's Percy DeWolfe Memorial Mail Race.

Hopkins is anxious that coverage of the event should deal with more than just his second first-place finish.

However, the Tagish resident opened up a bit once he was assured that would happen and once he got to talking about the race rather than himself.

Hopkins has run many DeWolfe races, usually placing somewhere in the top two to five. He was fourth in 2006, second in the Percy Jr. in 2005 and fourth in 2004.

Consequently, he has a good sense of what the trail has been like since he won it last in 1999.

The race takes mushers from Dawson to Eagle, Alaska and back a total of 338 kilometres. Hopkins gained his victory by achieving a time of 24 hours and 41 minutes.

'This one was different because the snow conditions were not as fast,' said Hopkins. 'I've noticed over the last couple of years it's been not as fast, the trail the trail has been good, but the snow has been abrasive.

'I changed my plastic (on his runners) three times and it didn't matter what I was using. It was still the same. After a while, you realize you've got to have faith in the power of your team and not so much on the speed.'

Mushers don't tend to think about things like ski wax, but Hopkins said if he'd had some, he would have used it.

'It was one of those days where you were looking for something to make it not so hard for the dogs to pull. You wanted it as frictionless as possible.'

Hopkins actually likes to run at night as much as he can, so he likes to take the first half of the race, going to Eagle, at a good clip.

Then, after his six-hour layover, he would like to come back to Fortymile and arrive there between 7 and 8 a.m. on the Friday of the race.

Allowing for the shift to Daylight Saving time, his arrival there at 9:29 wasn't too far out.

The snow and the wind slowed him down by about an hour. He feels the wind has been sifting the snow and making it grittier, and while he has felt stronger winds in this race, this year, the wind seemed to have a colder bite to it.

'A colder wind will take the moisture out of a dog team a lot faster. And I fed my dogs a lot more but I'd planned for that.'

The trend seems to be for a slower passage on the Yukon River, in his experience.

'It's getting slower, I think. I've run this race four hours faster than this year and still not won.'