Pikey from England hits the Green for racing weekend

By Pikey

I survived the Green Race.

So I’ve been in the states since the Gauley festival(sept 18th), where I first heard of having the chance of entering the green race, no doubt the most talked about extreme race in the world. The Green being special to me as it was my first big boat experience just over a year ago, I was so wanting to hit the beautiful creek again and throw myself in the same situation I was last year, entering one of the biggest competitions of its sort, just like I did with my freestyling at the world cup.

This was going to be slightly different, I know I can freestyle but running class 5 creeks isn’t something I do much of, “well I’ve done it once, last year on the Green!!” plus this time I was gong to race down it!

I was in good hands, Clay Wright was going to be my paddling partner, He showed me my lines, helped me remember them and in general gave me the confidence that I was ready to run the “gnar” on my own come race day.
Shane Benedict gave me a time of 5:45mins to aim for. Clay said if I had a real good race I should hit the under 5:30min mark. My personal mission, survive the green race having my face still looking pretty.

After 3 days and 5 times down the river, I’m sitting there at the start line, people I knew and others I only just met during that week shouting my name giving me that extra support that always gets you a little more pumped! 3,2,1,go, that’s it my arms are moving and I’m now paddling down this class 5 creek, I just focus on the next rapid, and hoped I had energy left for gorilla the big 18ft drop where people can crash and get hurt. I was feeling good after every rapid, had my best line through “go left or DIE!” as much as I was getting more pleased with my race I was also getting more tired, as you get to the last few rapids coming up to gorilla you try to save a little extra energy, I remember going over pencil sharpener, I heard just what I wanted “fire it up pikey” from clay, that’s was it, I was going for the notch and straight on to gorilla, it wasn’t the nicest lines and I ended upside down after the speed-trap unable to roll for a few seconds, I finally roll up and the rescue guy(good job guys) is there holding onto me boat incase I wasn’t going to make the next rapid, “let me go, let me go, I’m good” down the next few rapids to the finish line, I remember having Jason hale there at the end shouting me into the finish line, when I hit that thing I had such a high. I survived!

Out of energy I put down my boat and checked out the view of the hundreds watching the action and joined in with the shouting of support as every boater came through the course, it was a great atmosphere to be in, I remember Shane saying look up just as the wind blew the leaves off the trees and across the sky. It made me sit and really appreciate the life I live through kayaking, the places it takes me and the people I get to meet because of it.

To top it off I ran Sunshine for the first time and again survived, even better to have Clay at the bottom to congratulate me when I thought he had already left to paddle the rest of the river. It was a perfect first Green Race day for me.

Big thanks goes to the Asheville crew for there energy and enthusiasm, there is such a good vibe around that area, Anthony for throwing a cool Halloween party, Shane for letting us stay at his house and cause trouble with his two dogs, Big thanks to Stephen for letting me use his rocker and Clay for showing me the lines and getting me race ready.

Pikey

p.s my time was 5:41 yes, I rocked, I say that with the winning time overall being 4:27