Bix report

Last weekend I was out in Iowa to visit my parents, and while there I competed in the Quad City Times Bix 7 road race. Every year my goal is to break 50 minutes, and even though I missed it this year, I think I still ran well and am pleased with my performance. I woke up Saturday morning to thunder and lightning and rain, and that continued right on through the race. I was actually a little chilly standing on the starting line. My first mile, including the Brady Street hill, was 7:58, and my second mile (a long downhill on Kirkwood) was 6:47. On the way back I had to run up Kirkwood, and that was the most difficult part of the race, as it is every year. I managed to hold a decent pace over that stretch, and then my last mile, including the Brady Street downhill, was 6:47. I finished with an official time of 51:26, which was good enough to place in the 800s out of 13,000 people. The rain really helped to cool things off, and I was really glad for it -- in spite of being chilly at the post-race party and getting chafed from my wet shorts.

Nadal wins Wimbledon

I just finished watching Rafa Nadal win his 2nd Wimbledon title and 8th career Slam. He was heavily favored over his opponent, Tomas Berdych, so the straight-set victory did not come as a surprise. What was surprising was the way the other contenders dropped out of the tournament. The biggest upset was Berdych's defeat of Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. Federer had reached the final for the past seven consecutive years, winning six of them. Berdych has been playing well for the past couple of months and reached the semis of the French Open, but this was a monumental upset nonetheless. Another surprise was Andy Roddick losing to an unseeded player from Taiwan. I don't know why he had so much trouble with the guy, but they played three consecutive tiebreaks and Roddick only managed to win one of them. He finally lost 9-7 in the fifth set. The third surprise, at least in my mind, is that Novak Djokovic lost to Berdych in straight sets in the semis. This is a guy who will be ranked #2 in the world next week, and he couldn't put up much of a fight to try to make his 3rd career Slam final. Disappointing result for him.