Journalist Hunter S. Thompson is recovering but faces surgery after breaking his leg in a fall at his Waikiki, Hawaii, hotel, his wife said.

Thompson had traveled to Hawaii to cover Sunday's Honolulu Marathon as a columnist for ESPN.com. His wife said he was injured early over the weekend when he slipped on the bathroom floor.

After a brief hospital say, Thompson, 66, and his wife were returning by Wednesday to their home in Aspen, Colo., where he will have surgery.

"The first few days he was in a lot of pain," Anita Thompson said. But "he is a fast healer."

Thompson had planned to join actor Josh Hartnett on the pace vehicle for the annual marathon.

Hartnett will co-star in The Rum Diary, the movie version of Thompson's book based on his adventures in Puerto Rico, where he worked as a journalist in 1959 after being fired from a small-town newspaper in New York.