As an athlete here at USC, I don’t have the privilege of going anywhere fun like Cancun or Cabo for spring break. In fact, I haven’t really ever had much of a spring break because I was required to stay put in high school to compete for track as well. Nonetheless, I’ve made an effort the past few years to make the best of staying here in LA with nothing but pole vaulting to do for a week.
This year, I had grand plans of going to the beach everyday after practice and doing some traveling, and I was only partially successful. I didn’t end up going to the beach at all, but I did at least get some sun during practice because the weather was AMAZING all week. On Thursday, I had to go down to Huntington Beach to fill out some paperwork for my summer internship at C&D Zodiac, so I decided to continue down south and go home to Dana Point. My high school track team was holding practice, so I got to spend a few hours coaching the vaulters and demonstrating some of the stuff I’ve learned from my college coach.
Other than practice and hanging out doing nothing, I had two track meets: one at Cal State Northridge and one here at USC. Unfortunately, one of the other USC vaulters compound fractured both his tibia and fibula at the Northridge meet, so the vault was cancelled and I didn’t get a height. He ended up getting a 32cm rod put in his leg and spent a few days in the hospital recovering, so the other vaulters and I spent a lot of time visiting him and helping him get settled once he got back to campus. At the USC meet, I had a frustrating day and missed all of my attempts.
So I guess the week didn’t turn out well for vaulting, but at least I got some relax time and caught up on some much needed sleep.
