March 14th
So in this, my last year of university, nationals were held in Windsor, Ontario. Because most of the meets throughout the years have been either in Toronto or Windsor it didn’t feel like nationals until I’d look at the corner full of Calgarian athletes or Dalhousie students. The feeling for me this time around was especially different. Since I hadn’t competed in pole-vault since before Christmas, and hadn’t started jogging till the week after provincials, I was more worried about not embarrassing myself then living up to any expectations. The day of I started warming up an hour and 45 minutes early in order to find my long approach mark and get comfortable but ended up just jumping twice from the short approach since my foot was bothering me. After spending some time with “the message” and hearing the rules from the official the meet began. My teammate Vuk pulled out of the meet in warm up because of an injury but I still had coach James, Guelph athletes, my mom and Sarah there supporting. The first height was 4m35 and I made it over on my first attempt. I swung back too fast on my next jump and hit the crossbar off at 4m50 but made it on my second attempt. That was my last successful height and tied me for 7th place, one up from my ranking and good for 1.5 points. Guelph had another great year overall as the men got bronze, just 1.5 points ahead of Manitoba and the women missed first place by a single point.
I am extremely grateful that I was able to compete this weekend and enjoy the thrill of pole vaulting and the pleasure of travelling with the team one more time before I graduate. Vuk, although unable to jump this time, will recover soon and may compete at the Pan American games this summer.
this is the 4m35 jump:
Monday, March 16, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Ottawa-Guelph trip
Feb 16th, 09
so on Monday the 16th I was in Ottawa for my third day thinking I'd leave the next morning by bus or train. Before going out with friends I looked into transportation. After finding that the bus would take 8 hours to get me to Guelph and the train was over $100 I looked into rideshares. I found one on the University of Ottawa site to Toronto for just $30 that left in under 3 hours and I took it. 2 of my remaining hours were spent with 3 high school friends making a music video to the tune of a Sum 41 song. Little thought was put into it but it was good fun gathering random footage and a great way to finish my stay.
I hoped in the rideshare car with what turned out to be 2 guys who also attend Guelph and some U Ottawa girl. I ended up in the front with leg room, they were all friendly and talkative, without being too talkative, and we were listening to a funny mix CD with everything from "What is love?" to "bad boys" to some Ace of Base song. Not music that I'd listen to on my own but it was entertaining and brought some smiles. Certain that things were going far too well I figured we'd be late for the last bus leaving for Guelph at 9:30 but we arrived in time for Ben(one of the passengers) and I to buy tickets and make a call. Ben is a philosophy major and on the way to Guelph we ended up discussing ideas like creativity and what it means to "create" something. The type of conversation not often had around the TV at my house. Overall it was a refreshingly enjoyable trip from Ottawa.
Two days later I had the pleasure of watching the music video one of my friends had edited and posted on facebook. Especially after having experienced good footage go to waste in the past I was pleasantly surprised by the motivation.
so on Monday the 16th I was in Ottawa for my third day thinking I'd leave the next morning by bus or train. Before going out with friends I looked into transportation. After finding that the bus would take 8 hours to get me to Guelph and the train was over $100 I looked into rideshares. I found one on the University of Ottawa site to Toronto for just $30 that left in under 3 hours and I took it. 2 of my remaining hours were spent with 3 high school friends making a music video to the tune of a Sum 41 song. Little thought was put into it but it was good fun gathering random footage and a great way to finish my stay.
I hoped in the rideshare car with what turned out to be 2 guys who also attend Guelph and some U Ottawa girl. I ended up in the front with leg room, they were all friendly and talkative, without being too talkative, and we were listening to a funny mix CD with everything from "What is love?" to "bad boys" to some Ace of Base song. Not music that I'd listen to on my own but it was entertaining and brought some smiles. Certain that things were going far too well I figured we'd be late for the last bus leaving for Guelph at 9:30 but we arrived in time for Ben(one of the passengers) and I to buy tickets and make a call. Ben is a philosophy major and on the way to Guelph we ended up discussing ideas like creativity and what it means to "create" something. The type of conversation not often had around the TV at my house. Overall it was a refreshingly enjoyable trip from Ottawa.
Two days later I had the pleasure of watching the music video one of my friends had edited and posted on facebook. Especially after having experienced good footage go to waste in the past I was pleasantly surprised by the motivation.
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