Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's been a wonderful year and like you, I'm grateful for many blessings. Thank you all so much for following this insane old man pole vaulter's diary. It means a lot to me that you are there and that you can relate. Most of my training is alone so this is the only place I really have to share with like minded people. So thank you and have a great Thanksgiving!!

Today the right hamstring feels good again so I'm sure it's just a little glitch that will work its way out. I was telling my training partner, Don Curry, that I don't feel it when I jump but only when I'm doing my running. He said that sounds perfect - now I don't have to run. HaHa!! Fortunately or unfortunately, my running workouts produce my best chance to improve. We're jumping together tomorrow morning.

Don and I grew up jumping in each other's back yards when we were kids so we've been best friends for over 40 years. I talked him into starting to jump again in 2006 so I would have a training partner. He promptly got 2nd at Indoor Nationals in Boston and has since won many medals at the national level including the 2007 National Senior Games in Louisville where he was first and I was 2nd. Fortunately he won't grow into my age group again until 2011.

Over the past 20 months Don has been battling doctors to cure his osteitis pubis; an inflammation of the abdominal attachments to the pubic bone. I've had this and gotten it shot with cortisone and it's been fine for years. Don will get shot next week or the next and he too should be back on the road to success. A shot in the pubic symphasis is the most painful thing I have ever endured, but like my doc says, the more it hurts the better we got the right spot.

All the best and thanks again! Bubba