Survived My First Indoor Meet

When I left the house for the 3.5 hour drive at 5 AM it was 19 degrees. Fortunately last night about an hour before dark the sun came out and the wind picked up so it dried things out so black ice wasn't an issue.

When I arrived at Kris' place it was 25 outside and felt like 15 inside his steel building. He had heaters going in the spectators area but the runways were certainly cold. He opened the big garage door to let some sun in and that helped a little.

There is no evidence that the cold makes poles stiffer but they sure feel that way when you're body is somewhat frozen. A couple of times the spray I put on my tape to make it sticky made my hand numb because it was so cold. By the time my warm up was done I felt OK considering.

We had about 40 vaulters entered including some guests from Mexico so everything today was metric. To avoid ties in rankings Kris did metric plus 1 cm. We had eight people on our pit starting at 3.41m (11' 2"). I started at 3.71m (12' 2") and made it on my first jump from 53' on the 14/169/17.0. At 3.86m (12' 8") I felt I had no chance on my next pole from that run because it may be too big and if I moved back a stride it may be too small. So I moved back to 64' and skipped the 16.5 and went right to the 15.9 carbon pole that I made 3.90m (12' 9 1/2") in Sydney on. I made 12' 8" easy on the first jump but the pole felt really stiff. At 13' 2" I moved my grip up a couple of inches and had about 9" of height but came down on it. I went ahead and stopped without taking my last two jumps. I felt I needed to be on that pole to make it but I would have to run faster. Since I haven't been on 14' poles since Australia, and it was still under 40 degrees. I didn't feel it was safe to try and run harder so that was my rationale to stop.

So my day was 4 X 12' in warm up from 53' (14/169-17.0) and three meet jumps with a clearance at 12' 2" and 12' 8", and a miss at 13' 2". Seven total vaults but my body feels good and safe. It's been nearly six hours since I stopped and my toes are still cold. I know I'm a wuss.

We did a mixed group so we had two girls in our group. I got 3rd place of the eight vaulters and we calculated that I was 36 years older than the 2nd oldest vaulter in my group. Pretty funny.

I give my vault grade a "C" because my timing was inconsistent. Most of that will fix itself as I have not run that far or used 14' poles yet so it takes a day or two to get used to getting to the box with more speed and power. If you miss your take off timing just a little then your body gets knocked out of position.

BTW - my indoor PR (Personal Record) going into today was 3.67m (12' 1/2") so both clearances were indoor PRs. Hopefully I'll be back over 13' at Dallas in two weeks. Even though I get a "C" I'm happy with the height considering the cold and no vaulting at this level. I was a little surprised I made 12' 8" that easy with such a sloppy vault. I'm optimistic as I return to the grind.

Have a great evening and thanks for being here. Bubba