Busy Days & A Nice First Meet

LATE ADD - On my first jump of the meet I got about six steps down the runway before I realized I still had my ankle weights on. Pretty funny. I took them off and made it but it created a little laughter and comments. I wear ankle weights between jumps because it helps me warm up more quickly after sitting around.

REPORT - Swamped on Thursday as Nancy and I went to Kris' place early Friday to have all of my poles flexed. I started with nine 14' 7"/4.45m poles, cut 5.5"/13 cm off of the bottom, and some more cut from the top so they don't hit the lower crossbars. At the end of today I have a six pole series I can count on. I gave three to Kris. Why?

When flexing the poles we found out that for the most part we only lost .1 flex points by the 3.5" cut I made last weekend. Upon re-flexing we found that two poles were identical with one being skinny and one being fat, so I gave Kris the fat one. On the top end of the scale, my biggest pole proved not only too short when cut, but it too was identical in flex to my 2nd biggest ones, so I also gave that to Kris. Down to seven poles.

At the meet today we had 16 vaulters in my division and I got 3rd overall. The second oldest guy was a college freshman so I was easily three times older than most of the field. The opening height was to be 10' 2"(3.17m) but a girl needed it start a foot lower. It was about an hour before I came in at 11' 8" 1/4 (3.57m). I made that easy on my first jump on pole #1/15.8, from 10 steps. Moved up to the 15.4 and made 12' 2 1/4"(3.72m) from the same run. Moved to 12 steps and the 15.1 and made 12' 8 1/4" (3.87m) on the first also. From the same run at 13' 2 1/2" (4.02m), I had a really good jump and the bar almost stayed up. The pole felt a bit too small so I moved up to the 14.9 and had a huge jump but brushed it on the way up. I then moved to the 14.8 for my 3rd attempt and it twisted in my hand a little at take off. I had easy height but once it twisted I lost my control a little on the top and came down on it. Since it is only .1 bigger than the one before it I gave that one to Kris also. And now there are six poles.

Considering I haven't ever jumped in a meet on any of these poles, and I vaulted on six of them today, I feel really good about where things are. Quick poles with much bigger height. I have two bigger poles I have yet to jump on and I'm about to go to a few places that are great to jump at. In the end I gave Kris back three poles which will be trade credit should I need one more bigger pole to top my series. No lose situation.

I'm tired but pleased with the progress. The more I can jump on these poles the better I will have the timing and should get more height out of each one. For tonight, I'm not hurt and I feel positive about where things are going. In Australia at Worlds I was on a 15.7 and today I was on a 14.8 - that is a MUCH bigger pole from the same run. Looking for bigger things but I will remain cautious with my body.

Thanks for hanging in here with me and sorry I was without my computer for a couple of days. have a nice Saturday night! Bubba