Eurotrip Part 1 – Rottach-Egern, Germany 4.67m(15’4”)

Since I arrived in Europe I have stayed in 6 hotels, driven through or stayed in 5 countries, competed in 2 meets, biked around Paris, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, AND I’ve journeyed to the top of 2 mountains via cable cars.  Talk about a European tour!  I have never felt luckier to have my job which lets me travel to all of these wonderful places just to compete. Before I started vaulting I didn’t even have a passport. Crazy huh?

Well, my first competition in Sotteville, France didn’t go the way I wanted it to.  I ended up with a big fat No Height by my name.  Ugh.  Not how I wanted to start my tour in Europe.  I entered the competition at my normal starting height of 4.40m(14’5”).  Now that I look back at it, I definitely should’ve came in a bar lower just to get a good rhythm going.  My last attempt in the competition felt the most normal, but the pole was just too small.  Oh well, you live and learn right?

Thankfully, the day after the meet Mary, Tori, Danny, and I spent a day being a tourist in Paris so I was able to get my mind off of the bad meet.  We took a bike tour around the city learning about the history and looking at the beautiful sites!  Such a cool experience that I will always remember.  Next stop was the Eiffel Tower.  We took the subway system to the best view in the city.  I remember walking around a building and there it was, breathtakingly beautiful, shining in the sunlight.  Tears welled up in my eyes…I never thought I would be standing in front of this magnificent structure.  After taking a ton of pictures I convinced the crew to walk 670 steps to the second floor, there we took an elevator to the very top!  The views were spectacular!  Pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice.  To cap it all off, we each had a glass of champagne overlooking Paris.  :)

The next day we were 30 mins into our 6 hour drive to Leverkusen, Germany when we ran into a bit of bad luck…a flat tire. :( Since the car was rented in Germany we had to take it to a German rental car company.  Ugh…the nearest one was in Cologne, 5.5 hours away from where we were.  Luckily we had a donut tire in the back, but unluckily we could only drive 80km/hr which translates into about 50mph the whole way back.  So this easy 6 hr drive turned into a 12 hr trip!  Oh my gosh…loooong day…but we got everything sorted out and to our destination safely that evening.

Flat Tire in France! :(

 

The next competition was in Rottach-Egern, Germany on Lake Tegernsee.  A platform was literally built over the lake to put the pit on!  How cool is that?!  This meet had a great atmosphere with the crowd cheering, music blaring, and everyone having a genuinely good time!  I learned from my last meet and entered the meet with a huge clearance at 4.32m(14’2”).  I went on the clear 4.42m(14’6”) and 4.52m(14’10) on my first attempts.  Then had a bit of a struggle at 4.62m(15’2”) in which I cleared the bar on my 3^rd attempt.  The next bar was 4.67m(15’4”).  First run down the runway…Boom!  Great clearance!  Then I had 2 very close attempts and a blow through at 4.72m(15’6”).  Definitely a huge come back from the last meet!  I was ecstatic!  This type of “street/lake vault” just makes me fall in love with pole vaulting all over again…

Rottach-Egern Meeting

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Thanks for Reading!

Kylie

@ratherBvaulting
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