Aaron & Jenny’s Adventures

Did you ever dream of soaring through the air at 7+ feet or higher? I definitely did not, but that is exactly what I was doing Friday night. How Aaron gets me into these things is beyond me but after last night’s meet, I was really glad he got me into this one.

A little over a year ago Aaron found out about a pole vaulting club in Tucson. He was pumped - he hadn’t vaulted since high school and fantasized about soaring over a 14 foot bar again. I was excited for him but never imagined myself vaulting. Having a little fear of heights, I don’t think pole vaulting is something I would gravitate towards. After a few practices Aaron talked me into going to watch. I am not a watcher - I am a doer. I didn’t last long just watching. That first night I just got on the trampoline to “warm up” - it was a cool night for just sitting around. The next practice I went to try this pole vaulting thing.

Mental Preparation

Well learning how to pole vault has been a slow process with a couple of injuries along the way but here I am a year later competing in my first meet. It wasn’t as scary as I anticipated, in fact it was rather exciting and not scary at all. I was the only female vaulter thus, as long as I cleared something, I would “win”. Well I started at 6 ft. and cleared that with no problems. We bumped it up 6 inches and I cleared it again - no problem. Seven feet took two attempts to clear and 7′6″ proved too much for me. After every jump I was giddy with excitement. It was hard to believe that I was actually pole vaulting.

I am excited about our next meet and looking forward to practice. I have lots left to learn - in my opinion I have only learned half of the vault - I can plant and jump but I don’ t really invert or turn over the bar. It makes clearing the bar a little difficult since I go over sideways. I tend to be a slow methodical learner, especially when it comes to sports but you know, the beauty of the whole thing is that I can learn this at a gradual pace. I am not limited to a 3 month track season or even four years of high school. I really have as long as my wonderful coaches are willing to coach.

To be quite honest, as with most new things I try the vault has really been a life lesson for me. The most important thing about the vault for me is learning how to step out of my comfort zone into an area of uncertainty in order to improve. If I never leave my comfort zone, I don’t challenge myself to become better. I put a lot of trust in my coaches and in myself that I can do what I am asked to do. With each little success, a sliver of confidence is gained. That confidence is critical for me. If I don’t believe I can do something I usually won’t. However if I believe I can, I have a much greater chance of actually doing it. So as for me in the vault, nine feet here I come!

Oh yeah, I also did long jump at the meet - it was ugly- enough said!

View the rest of the pictures from the meet (including some of Aaron) .

Water in the desert is such a rare thing - it is almost sacred. Coming from a place where you have more water than you know what to do with (the Ohio River Valley) it was hard to grasp the preciousness of water in the southwest. However, having lived here for just two years I have learned to appreciate water in almost any form; rain, snow, sleet, river, well, bottled, tap and I could go on. Whenever we are out on a hike, if I see even a trickle of water or puddle that hasn’t quite dried up I get giddy with excitement. Well, you can imagine my state when we hiked in Cargodera Canyon a few weeks ago where you could hear the water rushing from over 100 yards away! Okay, so at some places it was more of a gurgle and it never got so fierce that we had to wade through it but, it was flowing the whole way down the canyon - in the desert that is something to get excited about.

Sutherland Trail

So on February 27th, Lance, Erin (friends of ours), Aaron and myself set off for Cargodera Canyon in the front range of the Catalina mountains just north of Catalina State Park. We hiked up the Sutherland trail a ways and then dropped down to the creekbed of the canyon and essentially boulder-hopped our way out of the canyon. As I mentioned the water was flowing down the entire canyon. If you do enough hiking in the desert you learn that water likes to play disappearing acts . It will be trickling along then all of a sudden it is gone and you are looking at sand. Then maybe another 100 feet or even a 1/2 mile later it shows up again gurgling along. So to say there was water flowing down the entire canyon is rather profound.

looking down Cargodera Canyon

Our hike was absolutely wonderful - I was ecstatic hopping from rock to rock over the water. Smelling it, hearing it, watching it tumble, swirl, and cascade over rocks just made me smile the whole way. The day was awesome, partly cloudy with big puffy dark clouds threatening the sky, adding an element of excitement to the hike. Everything was fresh and alive with all of the recent rains. Lance and Erin as always were such a pleasure to hike with, sharing all kinds of information about the landscape and history of the area. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the day any other way.

water cascade in Cargodera Canyon

The adventure today was all about the costume.

We went to the 17th Annual Arizona Renaissance Festival dressed in costumes we bought on our last two or three visits to the Ohio Renaissance festivals. The Arizona one was at least twice as large, but I’d say they are equally enjoyable. Lots of crafts (which start to become redundant), lots of food, and plenty of “shows” scheduled at half-hour intervals.

After an akward moment while fueling our car at a busy gas station, my nervousness melted away during our actual visit. There are too many other people dressed in strange costume to feel weird. My outfit was practically too normal.

All in all, we had a good time and will probably make the trip again next year.