Vaulting in the Big Leagues

You would think after a late-night 5-hour bus ride back to Amherst I would want to crawl into my bed with my shoes on, but I think it was that silly frozen mocha drink I had before we left that kept my brain going until about 3am last night.  For a little while my roommate and I recapped and swapped stories from the meet, but then I completely lost track of what we were talking about and fell silent.  The budding psychology major she is (and I’m sure I’m the perfect subject for observation) she watched me think for a little bit until she chimed in her usual way, “So what ya thinkin’ about?”

“It just goes to show you how much can change in a year.”

I had been thinking about it all day.  This time last year I started making some big decisions.  It was weird to be making a trip to the Larry Ellis Invitational a year later, staying in the same hotel, but on a different team.  Last year at this meet I was talking to Coach Jackson about transferring (despite a little incident the first night), competing against my teammates instead of with them, and showing up by myself carrying in two poles just hoping to clear opening height.  The night before was spent quietly dreading spending the night with teammates I wasn’t close with, avoiding an argument about beds/temperature of the room/lights on or off/etc, and crying home to mom and dad because of doubts I had.  I felt alone.

Here I was a year later, almost two seasons completed with that team I was talking to, joking with my teammates and coach, carrying in a big bag of poles and confidently knowing I could clear opening height and had a pretty good shot at clearing the next one. The night before was spent eating dinner huddled around the coffee table chatting about guys/school/vaulting/gossip with my fellow vaulters.  We laughed until we had tears in our eyes and our faces hurt. During the meet they loudly cheered me on and helped me out when Coach Jackson wasn’t around.  We spent the two days together as a nice little family.

I did end up clearing opening height of 10’10″, the highest I have ever come into a meet, and had a little diva moment when I didn’t clear the next height at 11’6″ like I had hoped.  I had to take about 10-15 minutes to keep dumb stupid tears from falling (which I had no idea where they came from) and pull myself together.  In my mind I was flailing and I nervously sipped Gatorade to hide my face.  I struggled to piece together something, but I told myself to focus.  Focus on the positives.  After finally recognizing this is my only second meet back and how nice it felt to be competing at all, it was much easier to find the rest of the positives.  Look how far you’ve come.  Look how happy you are.  Look who you’re here with.  Look how much has changed in just one year.  And guess what, you’ve still got one more after this.  :-)

Finally, the blog post you’ve all been waiting for (or didn’t know was coming) has finally arrived. I told Ingrid that I would post well over a month ago after PR-ing at 16′ 0.75” (4.90m), but I started and scrapped numerous blog posts due to the blasé subject matter and shameless self promotion. Let me sum it up as follows: biggest meet of the season + adrenaline + big pole + grippin’ and rippin’ = results. I wish I had more to say about it, but I just started my approach, blacked out, ended up on the pit and the bar was still up. The jump didn’t feel special, it just felt lucky. Today, however, I had some jumps that made every practice, every pole run, every session in the weight room worth it.

Let me set the scene: coming off an indoor season that was the best of my career on paper (a conference championship and a PR at the IC4A championship with a few other accolades to top it off), I approached this outdoor season with a feeling of apathy. How am I supposed to respond after meeting my career goals and draining every ounce of energy and willpower in the process? The hunger just wasn’t there, and I was scared as the Dickens that it wasn’t coming back. Worst of all, garbage weather and a stomach virus made the first three outdoor meets a wash. I knew things were bad when I told friends to not even bother coming to a home meet because I was uncertain about how I would perform. It seemed there would be no respite, but blessings often come in disguise.

This weekend’s Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton is usually one of my favorite meets of the Spring: we get to cut out early on a Friday morning, the weather’s usually nice, and the competition is always strong. It all started well enough, but my optimism was literally and figuratively dampened when I woke to the soft patter of rain drops on my hotel room windowsill. “Great,” I thought, “the pole vault Gods are frowning upon me again.”

After several hours of deliberation amongst the officials, the vault was moved inside to Princeton’s not-too-shabby field house. I felt like I’d caught a break, not having to deal with the weather and all, but you’d think I was running into a headwind based on how my warm ups went. Jump after jump, I struggled to move poles that I was crushing indoors. It seemed like I was in for another lackluster meet until a bit of advice I’d gotten from resident vault Yogi, Coach Hoogasian, popped into my head: on any given day, you don’t need to be on your biggest pole to jump your best. While this is a sentiment that has been echoed many times over, it was his countenance that popped into my head and encouraged me to swallow a slice of humble pie. Feeling like I had nothing to lose, I grabbed a 15′ pole that I was comfortable with for my last run-through, loaded it up, and got off the top unlike I have in a long time. It was that moment that captured the essence of pole vault that had been missing: fun.

Calm and composed, I cleared the first two heights of the meet (4.40m and 4.60m) on my first attempts. For lack of a better term, I could just FEEL it. It’s such an indescribable, but incredible feeling to be “in the zone”. The essence of which is so hard to capture and can be frustratingly ephemeral at times. Fortunately, I was able to catch lightning in a bottle, and I loved every second of it.

By the time I was up to attempt 4.80m (15’9”), I was ready to put together one of the most complete jumps of my career. Sure enough, despite a slight tap of my chest, I cleared the height, but most of all, I did it on a modest pole.

You see, the moral or the story here is that you can’t measure success in feet and inches. Yes, there’s a certain satisfaction to PR-ing or winning a meet, but there’s nothing quite like vaulting well. When everything comes together for a good jump, it’s like kissing that boy or girl that you’ve had a crush on for a long time. The weight of the world melts off your shoulders and you’re overcome by the most pure and infectious joy possible. This is why I pole vault, and this is why I will continue to pole vault until I’m wheelchair bound or suffering from the lasting side effects of enjoying the sport too much. I may never vault this high again, but I know darn well that I’ll be able to jump this well again, and you bet your boots that I’m going to have this much fun again.

As I’ve said before, this is a sport that can tie people in knots. While, we may struggle at times, it’s always an opportunity to take a step back and consider why we engage in such an esoteric and convoluted sport. I had a pleasant reminder today why I devote so much of my time and energy to vaulting, and I hope you all find what drives you.

Until next time, vault safe and vault happy!

Hey so a quick update about this last week. First, last Sunday we had our Empire 8 championships up in Rochester, NY. There were only 7 girls entered for the pole vault. We got to the meet and the weather was ridiculous. Insane winds, and for part of the day a mix of hail, snow, and rain. Thankfully, they decided to have pole vault and high jump indoors for safety reasons, so it was perfect conditions for us! I went into the meet really nervous, because at the previous meet I had done terrible. I am used to warming up on smaller poles at practice with Branko, but my school has a very limited amount of poles so when we get to meets, I have to warmup on our smallest pole, which is now a 13’ 140. But for the last week I was finally able to trust the pole. I also have finally started going from 7 steps, and I feel much faster by the time I get to the box.

So we get to the meet, and find out that pole vault was delayed by 2 hours. That was nice, because I got to watch some other events and just sit and mentally prepare myself for pole vault. I had awesome warm up jumps, and came in at 9’2”. My coach got to see all of my jumps for the first time in a while, and he was impressed with the progress I have made. I got onto my big pole, which is a 13’ 145. I was only holding at 11’9”, and was still getting a lot of bend out of the pole. I ended up jumping 10’2.25”, which was a PR for me, and thus a new school record.

This past Thursday, we went to south jersey for the Stockton Quad meet, and only 2 people from each team could compete in each event. This led to a pole vault field of 4 girls. My warm-ups did not feel that great; I wasn’t moving my arms enough, and wasn’t landing very deep in the pit. I decided to open at 9’. I easily cleared 9’ and was the only person left. I think the fact that I had no competition now (I had already won the event) made my vaulting better. I had nothing to worry about now. I then went for 9’6”, then 10’, then went straight for the ECAC qualifying height of 3.25 meters, or 10’8”. AND I MADE IT ON MY FIRST ATTEMPT!! I did hit the bar on the way down, but it stayed up.

Then I threw the bar up to 11’ but at that point I was getting tired, and I only swung on one of my attempts. But it ended up being a pretty good attempt.

It is so nice to finally see all my work with Branko pay off. I have some awesome practices with him and it sucks when I don’t see that progress when I compete. But it is finally paying off and I am really excited to go even higher. I may even need to get on a bigger pole, like a 13’ 150, to get more spring from the pole.

My next meet is next Saturday at the TCNJ lion invitational. I hope to go even bigger this week. =)

I’ll keep you posted =)

I think there’s no better way to start this entry:

I’M BAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!

Ok, that felt good.

It only took 5 weeks and 2 days to get back into competition, but I wasn’t counting or anything.  After recovering from a broken nose and a “significant concussion”–then a short battle with tonsillitis just for giggles–I finally vaulted in a meet this past weekend.  It certainly was not ideal conditions for jumping on a cloudy and cold day, but I was just happy to be back in uniform.  It was a home meet, all the vaulters were back together again (with one of the other girls coming back from sickness too), and we showed up ready to rock. I had so much fun competing–probably the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

I ended up with 2nd place at the Minuteman Invitational, which came down to a Rock/Paper/Scissors battle.  I’m not joking.

Three out of our four vaulters ended up clearing 10’8″ that day–which was HUGE for all of us on such a gross windy day, a new PR for Lindsey Pfau, and we ended up taking 1-2-3.  Myself and my teammate Jenelle Denehy had to do a jump-off at 11’2″ which turned out to be an all out battle–except it would have been better if we actually cleared some heights!  At this point we were so exhausted fighting the wind as we ran down the runway, we kept missing the same jumps over and over.  11’2″ — miss.  11′ — miss. 10’10″ — miss.  Even when we brought it back down to 10’8″ , the height we already cleared, we missed!  Jumps got sloppier and sloppier.  We were dead.  We were screaming at each other, “JUST CLEAR A HEIGHT ALREADY!”  Finally Coach Jackson stepped in and asked one of us to forfeit.  I was willing to, but Jenelle being the competitor she is (and one of my closest friends) she wouldn’t take the win without an actual win.

Rock paper scissors.

First round. Both threw scissors.

Second round.  I threw rock, she threw paper.  DONE.

We both laughed it off, and I congratulated her on her win by tackling her on the pit.  I will never forget this meet.  It was great to be back with my teammates again.

Next week we’re off to Princeton, NJ — hoping for some great weather.  I can’t wait!  It feels good to be back!  I’ll just be working on my Rock Paper Scissors skills in the meantime…