N.H.

...the two most dreaded letters to a decathlete.

Pole Vault is considered by most to be the most challenging event in the decathlon and happens to be positioned 8th of 10 events. So not only is it extremely challenging, but you come in to it extremely exhausted.

N.H. means "no height". This means the vaulter failed to clear the height they chose to come in at. You get three attempts, and then you're out.

My warmups for vault were probably the best of my life. I had a tight bungee at 17' and brushed the top of it on my first full run. Once the competition began, I chose to come in at 14' to get a safe, low mark before bumping up to higher attempts. However, there was roughly 1.5 hour span of time between my warmup and my first attempt. I'm not sure what all happened, I just know that things fell apart. My step was off by a foot and a half due to changing winds, I slowed at the box to shorten my step, and then my final attempt I was a foot out at take off. I still should have managed to clear the measly bar, but I just couldn't seem to turn up those bad plants.

I nearly stood over the bar and nearly cleared it once, but was unable to make it work. On a day where I was looking to score over 900 points in the event, I got a big fat "0".

I went on to throw the javelin using a one step approach (out of frustration) and stuck it well past the 180' line multiple times. Ridiculously enough, that ties or beats my old p.r. and is just short of a world class level throw. I opted out of the 1500m because there is one more decathlon in Oregon that just popped up on the schedule five days from now. I have no idea what the next few days will hold, but I will make a decision on Tuesday. I'm pretty beat up and don't know what to think yet. Two decathlons in one week is just plain dumb and may leave me with a seriously torn muscle or blown knee... or not. We'll see.

Don't worry, I'm not nearly devastated as you think. In fact, if you are reading this blog, you probably feel worse about the ordeal than I do. Personally, I couldn't be more blessed than to live the greatest life I can imagine and enjoy the journey. More on that later. For now I'm going to rest and kick with my boys Scott Lee and Tyler Young. They're ridiculous.

To put no-heighting in the vault in perspective:

-Dan O'brien did it at Olympic trials when he was obviously the greatest athlete in the world.

-Joe Cebulski, a ten year veteran (more on him later) did it last year at USA's.

-Trey Hardee did it when he was the obvious favorite for div. 1 Nationals, and again at USA's.

-Actually, I don't recall any great decathlete in the world that doesn't have a NH hear or there in their career.