Daegu Baby

Its my 4th day here in Daegu, Korea and at the moment it's raining but for the most part the weather has been nice.  I know I haven't updated the blog recently but as you can tell I made the team for the World Championships!  What an amazing experience, just to receive the USA gear in the mail, to try on the uniform and know that in only 3 days I will make my debut as a member of the greatest track and field team in the world!
I've been staying in the athlete village the last 4 days and its really something, there's a track right across the street so training and working out has been really convenient.   Last night Brian Yokohama, the chair of US pole vault development and my good friend Giovanni Lanaro went downtown and saw Plame of the apes in 4D!  It was pretty cool the seats moved like a roller coaster, wind and water blew in your face and there was smoke coming from the floor.  

I had a jump session on Tuesday from 5 lefts which I've posted a video on Facebook of.  Practice went really well, i was hitting the pole really good off the ground and so the one pole i had ended up being way too small, which was a good thing.  That workout left me with a very good feeling about this weekend and also very confident about my chances.  Right now my focus is on doing whatever I can to make it through prelimns and on to the final.  The last 2 world champs it has taken right around 18' 6" to make the final, and I know that i am more than capable of doing that.  Is been great to see so many friend from around the world, its amazing how close the pole vault community is, we really are a big family.  
I've been trying to use Twitter a little now so I will try to update that more often, you can find me there @Hollispv

Always pursuing,
Mark