A Sports Post That is Not About Running

Last night as I was lying in bed, I got a text that excited me.

Unfortunately, it was not from some hot man.

But, next best thing? It was from Laurel asking if I wanted to go to the U.S. Open today. Um, yes???

Don’t tell running, but tennis was my first love. [Pun not intended.]

Growing up, I tried almost every sport and activity I could–cheerleading, karate, softball. Most of them, I didn’t stick with very long. The two exceptions were gymnastics and tennis. I did gymnastics from the age of 5 to the age of 15. I was a perfectly average-sized kid until college, so I wasn’t outstanding at gymnastics–nor was I terrible. (Another post for another day, maybe.)

But the sport I really gravitated to was tennis. I started playing when I was ten years old and became even more addicted to it than I am to running today, going to tennis camps and playing all day every single day over the summer in hopes of making the high school team. I narrowly missed making it freshman year (but was told by the coach that at any other school, I definitely would have been on varsity–thanks?), made the team sophomore year, only to narrowly miss making it again my junior year. Disappointed and dejected, I cut back on tennis dramatically.

I still love it, but it’s certainly easier to just lace up my running sneakers and head out solo than it is to find someone to play with and somewhere to play. [With that said, if you live in NY and want to play, let me know!!!!]

So this morning I ran over to the Frying Pan to meet Laurel to pick up my ticket, and we ran together and chatted for a bit before I turned around.

Side note: in the nearly three years that I’ve known Laurel, we’ve never run together. I always thought she was too fast and I would die trying to keep up. Maybe she slowed down for me this morning, maybe (okay, definitely :)) I’ve sped up, but I did not die running with her this morning. Small victories.

I hopped a train (pro tip: LIRR > subway — it’s only two stops from Penn Station) and was out there in 15 minutes.

Mmm, fiber.

Stonyfield is one of the sponsors, and I saw this fro-yo cart and just had to take a picture for y’all. (I really wish I had tried some.)

I had grounds passes, not Arthur Ashe Stadium tickets, so I couldn’t see the main matches, but I could see everything else. I stuck to this stadium because it had the best matches.

The first match I saw was David Ferrer (who is almost as hot as Roger Federer) v. Igor Andreev. Ferrer started off from behind and came back to beat Andreev’s ass pretty handily, which was fun to watch.

Even though it was hot and I had a little bit of a headache from not having enough water, just walking into this stadium relaxed me and loosened some of the knots in my neck from all this job stress. Watching and playing tennis really is my happy place.

Remember that globe? I ran around it at the Queens Half and the sprint tri.

I’m not going to lie–halfway through the match, I was RUN-GRY. I saw this little Stonyfield cafe and figured I could get something decently healthy.

I ended up going with a chicken, tomato, mozzarella and basil sandwich. Good enough.

I went back and watched part of a women’s singles match. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the ladies, but men’s tennis is more fun to watch–they’re louder and faster. (TWSS?)

I had some stuff to catch up on back home, so I left halfway through the match and…came back home and caught up on it. (I did take the 7 train home, but that’s not why that picture is there. I just liked it.)

Does anyone want to go with me (or take me?) to see some more tennis before the Open’s over? What is your favorite sport to watch or play? (Besides running. We talk about running enough here.)