New England Track Championships

Okay, since I'm not behind on anything, I think it is time to talk about track and field for one last time this season. Yesterday, we made a pilgrimage to New Britain, Connecticut not to visit the Iwo Jima Memorial, although we did see it on Route 9, but to watch my sister pole vault at the New England Championships. By my estimate, there were about 500 athletes there, but I obviously did not go and count every single one, so give me some margin for error. I always talk about how basketball players are bigger outside of Vermont, but I know that the now applies for other sports. Unfortunately, I only got to watch a few events, but it was still pretty crazy how far people were long jumping in particular because I saw some of the higher seeds actually compete in that event. Last weekend at the Division II state meet, the longest jump was 19'5". Yesterday, there were only five jumpers out of 31 who went less distance than this. It's kind of crazy. However, it was a lot of fun to see these awesome athletes compete at a huge stage where the best compete in New England. Next year, the meet will be held in Burlington, so that will be fun for all the people who had to drive a long distance today.
Photo by Selective Focus Photography on Flickr

Pole Vaulting!

I think that today would be an appropriate day to discuss track since it is somewhat on my mind right now. I had been to three or four meets before this year, but I have been to so many more now that they are very enjoyable. There's something cool about going out to a field at night and knowing that you will be there for about four hours before everything is said and done. That being said though, when you have final exams the next day it's not quite as much fun, but now I can enjoy summer vacation as well as nights without homework.

Fortunately, through this season I have developed a love of the pole vault. It may just be because my sister pole vaults and so I have watched it a lot recently. However, there is something exciting about watching people jump up on poles and catapult themselves over a bar that is usually over 10 feet for boys and 7 for girls. Yesterday, at the New England Championship Qualifying Meet, two guys broke records by going 13'7" while a girl’s record was broken at 10 feet.

Sadly, I will only see one or two more pole vault competitions this year, but it was fun while it lasted!

Photo by znarled on Flickr

Deceptive Weather

Yesterday, as many of you may know, it rained a majority of the day. Normally, rain doesn't really bother me that much because I'll just stay inside and catch up on everything that I need to stop putting off. However, last night I was threatened with the prospect of watching a three and a half hour track meet in the downpour that was happening everywhere else. Why is it that only the days that involve outdoor plans does it rain? Fortunately, once we arrived at the track, the rain subsided and it became a beautiful night. Now I'm sitting here looking out the window at the sun and the somewhat hazy blue sky realizing that tonight will be a beautiful night to do whatever. I had to be all nervous all day yesterday when really I got rewarded in the end. Today, I would not even have had that stress because it seems pretty impossible for rain today (although now that I say that, it probably will rain just to prove me wrong). So here's the moral of the story: don't necessarily worry about the rain; go to the event and maybe it's not raining where you are headed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/silent-shot/ / CC BY 2.0