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

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more updates on my adventures through Europe!
Thanks for Reading!

Kylie

@ratherBvaulting
www.facebook.com/pv.kylie

2013 USATF Outdoor Nationals – 2nd time World Team Member

2013 USATF Outdoor National Championships: This meet is "make it or break it" for women’s US pole vaulters.  There are no second chances to make the world team and no committee voting you through if you had a bad day.  You have to be on top of your game on that day, at that time, no matter what the conditions are.  If you get ill or are injured, sorry, better luck next time. 

All of those things make USA’s one of the most important and stressful meets of the year.  Saying you have to be mentally tough is an understatement…you have to be mentally FIERCE in order to make it through this meet.

Leading up to this meet, that’s what was on my mind.  Talk about some weight on your shoulders huh?  It was a must to put all of that out of my mind.  The day of the meet I woke up refreshed, excited, and a little nervous.  This was the day I had been waiting for since the 2012 Olympic Trials.  I wanted redemption and to make that World Championship team. 

I had one goal going into USA’s last Sunday(6/23/13):

    1.  Place in the top 3 in order to make the World Championship team.

Height didn’t matter to me until I made the team.  I wanted to stick with the plan and compete.  The plan was to do what makes me the most comfortable, which was to jump at 4.40m(14’5”), 4.50m(14’9”), and 4.60m(15’1”).  I had been jumping those heights the last few meets so that’s what I wanted to do. 

Warm ups that day weren’t the greatest, but never the less, I had my coaches Greg and Jeff telling me that I was fine.  As the competition started I put my feet up, relaxed, and visualized my jumps.  I was ready.  I cleared 4.40m(14’5”) on my first attempt!  That first clearance is always a huge relief.  The bar went up to 4.50m(14’9”)…I blew through my pole on the first attempt, but came back with a nice second attempt clearance.  But now, I was in 4^th place.  I chose to pass 4.55m(14’11”) and go straight to 4.60m(15’1”) because that was the plan.  That was what I had been visualizing in the weeks coming into USA’s.  This next bar was “do or die” for me.  I had to clear it in order to make the World Team.  Putting all of that out of my head was difficult to do, but I managed to calm myself during the few minutes I had to rest between bars.  I was up first…I chalked my hands up…picked up my pole and thought, “Be tall, swing fast, and let ‘er rip”.  Success!  I cleared 4.60m(15’1”) on my first attempt!  Wahoo!  What an amazing feeling!  I made the 2013 USA World Championship Team.  Yes!  I had two good attempts at 4.70m(15’5”) and one blow through at 4.75m(15’7”), but I didn’t care.  My goal was to make The USA Team by sticking to the plan.  I ended up finishing 2^nd to Jen Suhr the 2012 Olympic Champion.

Women’s Team USA Pole Vaulters:

1.    Jenn Suhr

2.    Kylie Hutson

2.    Becky Holliday

Men’s Team USA Pole Vaulters:

1.    Brad Walker

2.    Jeremy Scott

2.    Jack Whitt

Congratulations to my fellow teammates!  Can’t wait to see you all in Moscow!

So what’s next?

Well…I’m getting ready to go on a European circuit of meets!  There has been so much planning since USA’s that I feel like it’s been a month since then, not just a week and a half!  I leave this Friday(7/5/13) to go to Europe, and I have 5 meets planned before the World Championships in Moscow, Russia in August.  I’ll be competing in France, Germany, Switzerland, back to Germany, and England.  Then I will go to Team USA training camp in Linz, Austria until we travel as a team to Moscow!  My return flight back to the US isn’t until the end of August, so this will be the longest I have ever been out of the country!  I’m excited, nervous, a little scared, happy to continue jumping, sad that I’ll be away from friends and family, and motivated to kick some Euro butt!  Haha!  So many emotions.  I just feel so blessed to get to go on these adventures and see so many different countries, while doing something I love…pole vaulting!

So my first competition is in Sotteville, France on July 8^th! Here is the link to the meet website:

http://www.meeting-sotteville.com/

Whenever I have wifi I will be sure to update all of my social media about my adventures overseas! 

Thanks for reading!

Kylie

@ratherBvaulting

www.facebook.com/pv.kylie