So I was blessed to end 2011 ranked No. 1 in the world ?
And I was doomed to open my 2012 campaign with a 'no height' atthe World's Most Famous Sports Arena (Madison Square Garden).
No-Heights (when you don't clear any bar during the competition)is the most frustrating result possible for any pole vaulter. Sortof like a wide receiver dropping a pass that he always catches(being a New Yorker, I was pulling for the Giants but I feel forWelker). I was so frustrated with the result, I bolted out of MSGas soon as the competition ended and within a half-hour was in theLincoln Tunnel heading west. True to my luck of the day, we gotstuck in a Lincoln Tunnel traffic jam behind a tractor-trailer thatlodged itself in the middle of the tunnel. Of all the places onearth, being stuck in a car with my husband and coach, Rick, in atraffic jam after a 'No-Height' is not a place I wanted to be at 10p.m. on a Saturday night.
Rick was oddly quiet so I figured I would start with my own meetsummation of what went wrong. Again, he was just silent. But Ifigured that his critical analysis was coming and it would not befavorable ? and deservingly so considering my less than positiveresult. With my confidence questionable, my frustration high, andour Lincoln Tunnel progress painfully slow, he finally broke thesilence with an unexpected remark. He looked at me and said, 'Ithink you can break the American record next week in Boston.' Atfirst, I didn't think I heard him right. Then, when he repeated it,I thought the fumes from the cars inside the tunnel must have gottento him.
His summation was not what I expected, but then again, goodcoaches are never predictable! He told me I was jumping better thanI scored. He was able to look at all the variables of the night,link them together and logically explain to me what had happened.
So my week's work began right there as we exited into New Jerseyen route back to Riga. We sketched out a weeklong plan that, ifexecuted properly, would give me a shot at the American record sevendays later. The technical adjustments went into place the firstthing the next morning and the mental picture started to form. Iunderstood what he was doing as the week progressed. His confidencein me is contagious and by Tuesday afternoon I started to believe(my confidence was admittedly low after MSG) that the Boston eventwould be a great one for me.
On Saturday night, I became the first American woman in historyto clear the bar at 16 feet in an indoor competition. Saturday couldnot have come soon enough. The push from the Boston crowd helped mealong the way as they always have (this was my third American recordin the Reggie Lewis Center). New England fans seem to love the polevault and they showed me that love on Saturday. The thing I rememberthe most was falling to the pad after successfully clearing 16 feetand hearing more than 4,000 people cheering. What a feeling!
The highs and lows of this event are hard for Olympic track fansto understand and even harder for pole vaulters to navigateemotionally. My results over the last week or so illustrate it best.A 'No-Height' one week in NYC and an American record the next. Thatis the pole vault.
As tough as it was this weekend for New England sports fans, theywere a big part of my American Record in Boston.
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Pole vaulter Jenn Suhr, a Fredonia native, is scheduled tocompete in the Millrose Games in New York, starting on Saturday.
