Blake Freking shouldn't have been the last musher to cross the Yukon Quest finish line.

But he was because those behind him quit the sled dog race, which was won by Lance Mackey last Thursday.

Bruce Langmaid, 46, was the last musher out of Dawson City. At that point, he was expected to take the Red Lantern.

He was down and out, and ready to give up. Race officials and mushing fans sang to Langmaid in an effort to raise his spirits as he left Dawson, but an hour later, the Ontario native decided he hated the idea of last place and turned around.

Dropping the dogs off at the campground, a mentally-exhausted Langmaid walked across the Yukon River ice bridge alone into town, his headlamp peering through the darkness.

Six other mushers before Langmaid dropped out of the Quest, most because of dog problems.

Had Langmaid stuck it out to the end, he would have been guaranteed $1,500 US for a 15th-place finish. Essentially, he would have gotten his entry fee back, which was $1,250 US.

Bruno Barureis was next in line for the Red Lantern. At six feet, five inches, weighing in at 250 pounds, Baureis was an atypical musher heavy and slow, but content in last place as he was travelling at a faster rate than the last time he ran the Quest in 2002.

But as fate would have it, Baureis would step into a hole on his way to Circle, Alaska, throwing his back out.

Seen limping and stiff in Central, Alaska, it was clear to all that Baureis was in too much pain to go on.

Dan Kaduce was another Red Lantern possibility, suffering from the flu. He tried to wait out his illness in Central, but when he couldn't stop throwing up, he decided to throw in the towel.

Sebastian Schnuelle, 34, was also a contender for the last-place lamp. The Whitehorse musher was running with the front pack, but his dogs fell ill outside of Circle.

Schnuelle returned his dogs to the town of 84 people and let his dogs have a long rest of 18 hours a decision that sent him into last place.

Miraculously, his dogs recovered from their severe vomiting and diarrhea and leapt back to life, passing most of the competition. His happy and once-again healthy team crossed the Fairbanks, Alaska finish line for the number nine spot.

That left Freking with the Red Lantern.

Although he plans to run the Quest again and is happy with his rookie run, he said Kaduce or Baureis could take the lamp instead.

Freking is not used to losing.

He has quite the track record for somebody who has only been mushing for six years. He won the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon as a rookie and tackled Alaska's Iditarod as his third race in 2000.

Freking's accomplishments are all the more impressive when one notices his dog team is made up of Siberian huskies, which are a rare sight in the dog mushing world... unless you live in Hollywood.

Tinseltown made the big, fluffy Siberian pups into the poster children of sled dog racing, but the faster Alaskan huskies are more commonly found at the front of a sled.

Freking chooses to use Siberians because he finds they're easier to take care of than the Alaskans. He said Siberians require less massaging and have tougher feet.

There are two types of Siberian huskies: the sled dog and the show dog. The show dogs are big, heavy-boned and blue-eyed. Freking's sled dogs, on the other hand, are a little lighter.

Although his dogs are called slow, they averaged 21 kilometres (12.9 miles) per hour when he won the John Beargrease.

Freking is worried his last-place finish in the Quest will give his Siberians a bad name, but said it wasn't their size and speed that did them in.

'Their training was their downfall,' he said.

Back home, in Minnesota, Freking's dogs run along well-worn snowmobile trails.

This year's punchy trail left several dogs on his team with injuries.

Before Freking runs the Quest again, he plans to train his dogs on rougher terrain to get them used to the punchy trail of the North.

He gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from this year's Quest, having run it with two long-time veterans: Frank Turner and John Schandelmeier.

'They were great for insight,' said Freking. 'It was really awesome travelling down the trail with them.'

Freking signed up for both the Quest and the Iditarod because he was looking for a challenge.

'And Siberians are heavy-coated dogs, so I figured minus 40 would be good for them,' Freking said.

But this year's Quest didn't offer the temperatures Freking had been looking for. Coming into Dawson during the first week, temperatures dipped to minus 20 C only, warming up to 0 C in Fairbanks.

After running the North's 1,600-kilometre and 1,700-kilometre races, Freking said it's tough to compare the Quest to the Iditarod.

'The terrains are different and the trail is different,' he said.

Before mushing, Freking was into skijoring. He later moved to Alaska to handle for friends, Earl and Natalie Norris, after Earl went for surgery.

Freking became hooked on sledding and ran the Iditarod the following year.

Before starting the Quest, his goal was to finish with a strong, happy team. Freking also wanted to get a sense of the trail so he could come back again with more competitive ambitions.

Both goals were met.

When Freking crossed the finish line after 5 p.m. last Friday, he pronounced it time for a beer.

He posed for photos with mushing fans, as quite a large crowd had gathered to cheer on the last-place team.

Freking enjoyed spending the two weeks out on the trail camping and being alone with the dogs. It's something he doesn't get to do in the mid-distance races he runs.