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Some of you will think it sounds stupid that I would have to say, “Know the course”, but you have no idea how many people don’t have a race plan until race day?! Making that plan is the number one mission you can take on to have a good race. The mistake many people make is that they think they know the course when they have paddled the river a bunch of times. Racing is completely different from paddling down the river on a normal day. For starters you don’t catch any eddies and there are 1,000 people watching you.
- The number one priority is to know the course from the starting rock to the finish rock. The best racers do laps on sections of the river rather than doing full river laps and spending time running multiple shuttles. This will help you dial in exactly where you want to be in each rapid. Good sections to lap are: Start Line through Pin Cushion (easy walk up), Pin Cushion through Go Left (tough walk up) and, Chiefs through Power Slide. The slides below Gorilla aren’t terribly difficult when you are fresh but when you are dog tired it feels like you are paddling through molasses. Running down through Rapid Transit is good practice as well but the hike up is a good bit harder from there. The crusty veterans of this race say, “You win the race on the top section, and lose the race on the bottom section,” meaning the time to be made is in the easier rapids. You aren’t going to make up a lot of time in the harder stuff just be on line!
- Think about your Exits and Entrances to rapids. Everyone worries about their lines through the rapids, but the place where you can gain or lose the most time is how you exit or enter the rapid. Make your exits send you towards your next entrance and stay in the moving water.
- Visualize the entire course. Visualization will give you lots of extra practice time mentally. When I am doing flatwater workouts I try to visualize the course and see if my timing comes out correct. Visualize it as vividly as you can. Imagine every part of the river as you see it going downstream. This will help you set up for rapids further ahead of time.
- Do at least one full race course run. I hear it all the time. “I didn’t realize how tired I would be coming into Gorilla.” It really makes the whole river different when you are tired and the only way to know how it will feel is to do it.
- Yes you should run Gorilla at least 10 times successfully before you come out and race just like the entry form asks of you. Obviously I would recommend that you have a lot more runs than that on the beast but don’t go breaking yourself two weeks before race day.
- Do not come to the race getting ready to run Gorilla for the first time!
Now enjoy some lines of the Green and Why we do this race!