Six weeks from last night (Friday) I will be in Oz. I leave Wednesday night but because of the time change and 14 hour flight it will take two days to get there. That's both scary and exciting as I continue to press forward with my training with the greatest caution. After the first week my body has not yet started rebelling against the training load so I will keep it easy and consistent. Today after breakfast I've got my hardest of the two leg days so I'm sure I'll feel that when I vault Monday. Also as I move through to bigger poles I'm sure adjustments will need to be made.
New Friends
Yesterday I got an email from a fellow competitor from Sydney, Phillip Carrero, who is in my age group. He sent an invitation to practice at his place, borrow poles, or whatever I might need to make our trip a fun success. He had heard of me through Alan Launder. I Googled him to learn more and found out that he is quite the accomplished artist. Here's a link to his website http://www.carreroart.com.au/polevault/10200da.htm. If you click under "Pole Vault" he has some very impressive pieces. Well done Phillip and I very much look forward to meeting you and hanging out with you and your group. Count on me for Sunday's practice before our Tuesday meet.
We're now supposed to get our final schedule and list of competitors on August 31. I have set my last big pole practice in New Braunfels for Friday September 11, as my poles will leave for Oz on that day to assure plenty of time to arrive safely at the Games. I have other poles to train with but my "meet series" of 6-8 poles will begin their journey before me. Hopefully I can count on Phillip and Alan as my back-up.
In 1997 I shipped poles to South Africa and they never arrived. Seven weeks after the meet they found them in Germany and got them home to me. I had to borrow poles for those World Championships from my fellow American, Charlie Barnard. I got 3rd and he got 4th with me on his poles. I felt pretty bad that he missed getting a medal because he helped me out. But you can ask any vaulter and we all would do the exact same thing. We always help each other, even during the competitions. It's never us against each other but rather us against ourselves. That is one of the things that make our event so unique.
I go to New Braunfels (170 miles away) to see my coach, Kris Allison, (www.lonestarpv.com). Kris has been highly successful as a vault coach for all levels of athletes since he left his job as a math teacher to take of his club full time. He has a massive training facility and can vault both indoors and outdoors. He had the first Texas high school girl to vault 4m (13' 1/2") and coached the current collegiate champion, Jason Colwich of Rice University, 5.72m or 18' 9 1/4", to 17' (5.20m) in high school. When I arrived back in Texas in October of 2001 I coached Kris and helped him start his club. Over the years, the student has surpassed the teacher as I run everything I do by Kris and report to him daily. I can clearly say that any success I've had since my return to competition has been hinged on Kris and his expertise. I see him maybe 6-8 times a year and jump at his beautiful facility 2-4 times, but we email and talk constantly. He is truly a great friend and invaluable part of my team.
That's it for now. I can't say "team" without talking about my medical guys but I will do that another time so I can devote the entire post to them. You don't compete at this level at 56 years old without constantly having something that needs attention. More soon. Bubba
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