Hawkeyes beat Penn State

I haven't had much time for blogging lately, but I did want to write a little something about the football game Saturday night between Iowa and Penn State. For some reason unknown to me, Penn State was heavily favored, and they certainly looked good at the beginning of the game. They scored a touchdown pretty quickly and then tacked on a field goal for a 10-0 lead. But, much to my delight, the Hawkeyes played excellent defense and were able to pin the Nittany Lions on their goal line. They forced a fumble in the end zone and picked up 2 points for the safety. At halftime the score was 10-5, but the momentum was with Iowa. I went to bed and missed the second half, but obviously Penn State's offense fell apart. They didn't score for the rest of the game. Iowa won 21-10. I was favorably impressed. The Hawkeyes are now 4-0 and look to be one of the top teams in the Big Ten.

Ramping up the mileage

Fall is finally here, which means it's high-mileage season for me. In a typical year, I'll race the Baltimore half-marathon in October and then the JFK 50-miler in November. Last year I missed the JFK, which may not have been a bad thing since I was nursing a sore Achilles. But this year I've signed up for both races, and I really want to make sure I'm prepared. I've been running twice a day during the week, with a long run on the weekends. Right now my weekly average is about 45 miles. I'm satisfied with that, although I may increase it just a little bit after the half-marathon when the weather gets really cool.

Del Potro defeats Federer

The men's final at the U.S. Open was played Monday night due to rain over the weekend which delayed some of the matches. Both semis ended up being played on Sunday. Juan Martin del Potro beat Nadal very convincingly in the first one, and in the second one Roger Federer took out Novak Djokovic, also in straight sets. The final started at 4pm, and since I was still at work at that time, I had to listen to the broadcast over the internet rather than watching on TV. Federer won the first set 6-3 and was up a break in the second when I headed home. By the time I arrived and turned on the TV, the second set was in a tiebreaker. Evidently Del Potro broke back at some point in the set. He went on to win the tiebreaker. They were on serve in the third set until 4-5 when Del Potro double-faulted twice to allow Federer to break him and win the set. At this point I thought the match was over. But Del Potro played tough in the 4th set and got to a tiebreaker. Roger had a major error on the very first point of the tiebreak, double-faulting. He never recovered from that, and Del Potro took the 4th set. The final set seemed to be all Del Potro. He broke Federer early and went up 3-0. He finally ended the match by breaking Federer again at 5-2. Great match. Unfortunately, the award ceremony left much to be desired. Roger gave a nice little speech, and then Del Potro answered some questions before Dick Enberg started to talk about the prizes. Del Potro asked if he could say a few words in Spanish but was told that they were "running out of time". The poor guy was clearly crestfallen and did not care at all about the various prizes Enberg was describing. Del Potro asked again, and Enberg reluctantly allowed him to "quickly" say something in Spanish. How ridiculous that the U.S. Open champ is rushed through the ceremony so that CBS can acknowledge the sponsors and then get back to the regularly scheduled programming. Del Potro should have been allowed to talk as long as he wanted in Spanish. The ceremony was supposed to be all about him (and Federer), not all about the car and the prize money.

Rain at the U.S. Open

After a week and a half of almost perfect weather, rain finally interrupted action at the U.S. Open. Men's quarterfinals began on Wednesday, and both Djokovic and Federer advanced to the semis. On Thursday, Juan Martin del Potro completed his match against Marin Cilic, winning in 4 sets, but the Nadal-Gonzalez match later that night was postponed during the second set tiebreak. Yesterday was a complete washout, and it was not until noon today that Nadal took the court again. I watched on TV, and it was ugly for Gonzalez. He lost every point in the rest of the tiebreak to drop the second set, then was bageled in the final set to lose 7-6, 7-6, 6-0. This sets up a Nadal-Del Potro semi to be played tomorrow, along with the Federer-Djokovic match. The men's final is currently scheduled for late Monday afternoon.

Roddick out

I went out to dinner Saturday night but made it back before the end of the Roddick-Isner match. Apparently CBS had stopped their coverage for the day, but fortunately the US Open website showed live footage of the match. Isner won the first two sets, and Roddick came back to win the third. I saw the end of the fourth set, which was close. I believe Isner even had a set point while leading 5-4, but Roddick ended that opportunity with an ace. He then broke back to take the set. The fifth set went along without any breaks and ultimately went to a tiebreaker. Roddick couldn't win a point off of Isner's serve, and Isner broke Roddick one time. That was good enough, and the upset was complete. The other top guys are still hanging in there. I watched Nadal defeat Almagro yesterday, and I missed Murray's night match, but he also won. Djokovic and Federer will both play later today. And you can never count out del Potro. So there's still lots of tennis yet to be played.

Top seeds still alive

The U.S. Open got underway this week, and so far there haven't been any big upsets on the men's side. This tournament is always difficult for me to follow because of the night sessions. Typically they have a women's match followed by a men's match, which means the guys are playing after I've gone to bed. This was the case with both of Andy Roddick's matches so far, and I believe Andy Murray's first match was also a late one. Federer also played under the lights, but he played before the women's match, so I actually got to hear the final result of that one before dozing off (but only because he won in straight sets). The action continues today and throughout the weekend, so if I'm lucky I may get to see some of the matches on TV. Nadal and Murray are both playing today, so I assume Federer, Roddick, and Djokovic will all play on Saturday.