Thursday Stoke

Hey folks, this ain't your normal Thursday Stoke. This is going to be a:

SUPER Thursday Stoke!

There are so many things to be stoked about today that I'll probably forget to mention them all.
Here goes:

First off, I've got to recap where I left off in the last post. I did go for a run yesterday morning. The first run in 8 days. I set out to do 5 miles and only did 3 miles. I tried to go slow, but ended up running a tempo pace (I can't help myself when the distance is short). About a mile into the run Mr. Achilles started complaining so I made the "play it safe" decision to only go three. After all, as you'll read later on, I'm not young, dumb and bulletproof anymore. My Achilles tendon did not swell up to cankle status as it did before, but it is super tight and borderline painful. NO BUENO! I'm back to R.I.C.E.ing it and no more running for a few more days. I'm taking One Sassy Girl's advice and giving the tendon lots of time to heal. This I am NOT stoked about, but when I set out to train for a marathon I planned on dealing with at least one injury so in a way I'm stoked that it's happening now with 90 days left instead of 10 days left or something.

Now for more stoking matters:

• Harrison signed up for Disney... finally! He is my game day running buddy and the reason I got myself into this marathon business in the first place. We are officially both signed up and registered and in this together (he is also nursing an Achilles issue now as well).
  
• My good friends John and Julie are officially moved to Puerto Rico! I did NOT move with them as planned for financial reasons (real estate market can suck it!), but I'm super stoked for them and also eager to fly down there with some of my quiver and rip apart some winter time Rincon swell action! And, eat lots of tropical fruit of course!
  
• In two days, J-Mo (aka Caution: Redhead Running) will rip up her own swell in Chicago. A running swell, that is, of 35,000 or is it 45,000??? of marathon runners pounding pavement in the windy city. She has trained so hard, overcome adversity, harnessed her fears and taken bold risks to get there and I'm so stoked for her. Run Morgan Run!
  
• I've reached my 50th post. This is really my 51st post. I didn't even realize it until writing this one so I'm stoked about far this little blog is coming along and I'm especially stoked for my readers and also each of their entertaining blogs!
• Jojoba is having surgery tomorrow! Yes, I am stoked about this and I'll tell you why! Jojoba is one of my closest friends. We're both Gators (marched in the band several years apart), both majored in the same college within the University of Florida and both love to surf and love the ocean and some how we managed to find each other and become friends. About eight months ago we were at a rock climbing wall and she fell only about three feet right in front of me and broke her tibia and fibula in her right leg. She had immediate surgery, but the past few months have been hell for her and her recovery because her fibula (smaller non-load bearing bone) is not healing like it should, which is causing her a lot of pain. So tomorrow she is getting a second surgery done to hopefully correct it. I know she is super nervous about it, but I am super stoked because I have faith that this will all work out and she'll be back to her old self fearlessly charging hurricane swell waves very soon! Good luck my dear Jojoba!

Jojoba

And last, but not least, I'm stoked for all the birthday's this week. Most of all Jeanie Marie's birthday tomorrow. She has been a great friend to me; a best friend ever since one day (about 16 years ago) in high school where she ran into me (literally at full speed) in the hall way next to my locker. We normally celebrate "our" birthdays together (mine is today), but she now lives in California and our schedules didn't work out for a visit this October. Tonight I will call her a few minutes after midnight because it will be her birthday in my time zone and my birthday still in her time zone. Yes, I know I'm a dork, but for the first time we'll be celebrating our birthdays together (really at the same time) on the phone. It's also Rixy's birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday to Rixy. We miss you're antic's over in NSB!

And finally (really this will be the final one, I promise) as I said earlier I'm not young, dumb and bulletproof anymore. I'm officially 32-years-old today and I'm stoked! I look around and I'm in much better shape than many people 10 years younger than I and I really do feel great! So I'm stoked to be older, wiser and only slightly bulletproof. :-) Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes! It's only 10 a.m. and I'm already overwhelmed. My email inbox this morning contained 61 email notifications from Facebook alone. I'm afraid to log onto Facebook just thinking about how I'm going to respond to all of those comments.

Tonight I'm off with some surfer friends to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal's Islands of Adventure. It was a last minute idea by my friends to drag me to this event. I'm not really into the haunted house kind of things, but there are some gnarly roller coasters, which I do like because they remind me of my aviation days back when I was flying airplanes. I tried to get a date to come with me, but being last minute it didn't work out. Hey, it's my Birthday! I'm going to have a good time and be stoked about it anyways!

Good luck to all those running marathons this weekend and may an epic swell with offshore winds grace your beach wherever you are on the rock!