Update from Vienna

This sport can drive a man crazy!  I forgot to tell you that over the weekend at the Gill Factory Vault I jumped 5.70m/18'8" a season best!  I was feeling pretty good about it and excited about coming overseas to jump in a couple of meets, and I still am dont get me wrong.  I landed in Munich around 8am on Monday and was picked up and driven about 4 hours to Vienna.  I jumped here in Vienna last year and we dealt with rain the entire meet,  I finished in 2nd place jumping 5.40m/ 17'9".

Well this year the weather looked like it may cooperate but as we got closer to the time of the meet we had intermittent showers.  The rain held off for most of the afternoon and it looked like we might luck out.  I wasnt feeling too bad, the legs were warming up but my calf was pretty sore.  I took a couple jumps in warmups from short run to get a feel for the set up and things felt good.  I moved back to my full run and my legs just werent moving too well, and after taking about 6 jumps it just wasnt happening, and it looked like the rain was coming in.  So i decided that rather than take the chance of not making a height I would start at the opening height and jump from my short run to make a few bars.  I made 4.80m, 5m, and 5.15m all from my short run but when the bar went to 5.28m/17'3" I knew I needed to move back to my long run.  I did and I actually felt better than all of my warmups and was able to make the bar on my third attempt.  The bar went up to 5.40 and my legs just werent cooperating, I couldtn hit the same takeoff spot 2 times in a row.  I had a lot of fun and know that the meet director was happy with my performance, he even told me I was voted best performer!  Not the height I was looking for but still a good time.

After the meet I got word that I got accepted into the Paris Diamond League meet on Friday!  Tomorrow I fly to Paris and get ready to jump on a very big stage with some of the worlds best.  Quite the meet to pick up while im here.  

Always Pursuing -Mark-