13.1 Miles? No Problem!

First, let me say I'm a slacker for not updating my blog the past week. I was in Puerto Rico and just didn't feel like going to the Burger King to use the free Wi-Fi.

So get ready for an awesome Puerto Rico recap post with some seriously sick photographs!

But before that, while I'm still cracked out of my mind on a runner's high, I want recap my first ever timed 13.1 mile run this morning that I rocked in less than 2 hours. Yup, I'm a badass!

Yesterday I planned to take it easy with an early morning surf session, followed by a day spent with my Orlando family at the Bethune beach house while carb loading and hydrating in anticipation of today's run. What really happened was a surfing related injury followed by eating junk food with the family and then being suckered out last night for a few (three to be exact) beers and only getting about six hours of sleep before the run.

The injury happened when I got over eager and attempted to do a "helicopter" move with my 9'8" noserider. The idea is to get both feet up on the nose just as the wave is peaking and be positioned high on the lip while above the "pocket" and reach down to the frontside rail of the board and pop the tail out of the wave. Using body weight and the force of the wave the tail spins around to the forward direction. At this point you are going forward on the wave with the board backwards and you have to walk back down the board eventually allowing the fin to go back into the water and when that happens the board will spin around to the normal surfing position. It really is an awesome sight to see it done on a longboard and takes just the right wave, position and experience to pull off. What happened to me was about half way through while I had the board spun around 180 degrees the wave "pooped" out on me leaving me behind. With no wave I'm now sinking rapidly on top of the nose of my board. I jump off and the board shoots straight up about six feet into the air. Normally this is not a problem, but this time the 30-pound board decided to come back down right on top of me! I quickly dive underwater as deep as I can go, but I feel a pressure on my right leg about halfway between my hip and knee. The 10-inch single fin of the board impacted my quadricep so hard it cut me and bruised me over an area that is at least half way around my leg. So needless to say I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run at all today.

With all that in mind, I set out to run and easy 6-8 miles. Somewhere around the third mile I was feeling amazing. It was still dark and there was a cool sea breeze. Before I officially started training I always ran with no set distance. It was simple. If I felt good I'd run far. If I felt bad I'd run short. Today I remembered that philosophy and pretty much said "F*ck it I feel good," and went for greatness! Two bridges, the beach, a boardwalk and numerous sidewalks later I found myself conquering 13.1 miles in 1:59:06. When I realized that I had just run a sloppy half marathon in under two hours I got even more stoked! My unofficial goal for the Disney Marathon in January is to be under the 4-hour mark. Today was my first attempt at half that distance and I was right on pace and I feel freaking great!

I'm feeling so great that I think I'll head out to the beach, maybe even surf (but no helicopters for me today), enjoy the rest of Labor Day, call my sister to wish her happy birthday and play a softball game tonight! Hope everyone has a great Labor Day!

Puerto Rico Recap Coming Soon!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I took with my cell phone from Puerto Rico. I did a 4-mile hill run that was moderately difficult just because I am NOT used to hills! But the scenery was amazing! Ciao everyone!