I have an amazing cold. So I’m not running. However in protest of the germs I walk a few miles in the howling wind.

I went for a quick run this afternoon after work. I heard earlier on in the day that a bit of a hole had opened up about a mile away from the  quarry. I decided to explore as part of my run. It turned out to be a lot bigger than i imagined. It turns out it’s an old mine shaft from the 1800′s where they used to mine for Lead around here.

I smoked for 13 years and I was once described by friends as a proper smoker. There are some very low depths I sunk to when I ran out of cigarettes’ and didn’t have the money to get another pack. I think my lowest point was when I woke up very early in the morning gagging for a smoke and of course I didn’t have any. So naked and cold I poked around in the ashtray and found a “butt” which had half an inch of tobacco inside. This to me was a great find. I knew then while I drew and sucked on the sad used cigarette inhaling deep into my lungs that I needed to stop this filthy habit. That was the point when I had to face the scary reality of quitting. I always knew the benefits of quitting smoking.

That’s the thing about smoking whenever I a had a cigarette and most days this was over 20 times, I knew I had to stop. So 20 negative 5 minute experiences a day amounted to well over an hour and a half of my time awake in misery. I hated myself to the core and felt just as disgusting as any of the brown lumps I was coughing up on a regular basis

I did enjoy the social side of it. “Us smokers” in our groups huddling from the cold was always a great way to start chatting to people. We used to be aloud to smoke in pubs. Drinking takes smoking to another level of pleasure as does the first cigarette after a meal. I really did enjoy that and if I am honest I still miss it.

Anyway after the cold morning shivering naked and rummaging around in a stinking ash tray I quit. I went Cold Turkey. It was time to open the door to quitting I found as much information about giving up and what it was costing me It was a living hell. I am in no way exaggerating when I say this was the toughest thing I have done in my life. This wasn’t just mentally  difficult this was physically hard. I was vomiting at work. I couldn’t hold a conversation for more than 30 or 40 seconds before I had to stop and explain what was happening to me. I could only talk about how I was giving up. I bored my wife my friends and my close family with every detail on what I was going through. I sweated a lot and looked a mess. This lasted for about 14 days and I still clearly remember the morning I woke up and I didn’t feel like having a smoke. It wasn’t elation, I wasn’t happy , I was just relieved.

I now smoke my pen at work and even have an empty ashtray I use to flick the imaginary ash into. I also put it out. I would like to say I have never looked back but the truth be told that’s all I ever do and that’s the price I pay for smoking all those years.

After i had finished work i went out with the intention of doing some hill sprints or just old fashioned running fast getting my breath back and repeat until i feel sick. I also came up with a little plan where i try to “write” my name with the GPS. This failed as you can see from the result below unless my name is squiggly line which indeed it is not. So next time I’m gonna find a big field and make a better effort. Yes i felt sick at the end.

Never done this race before but I will do it next year for sure. Me and my other half did this yesterday. This is my first race in a long time and with the lack of training I wasn’t expecting to get under 60 minute but I got a time of 54:45 which is a few minutes over my PB so I was very pleased with that time.Good atmosphere and no faffing about at the start. Bring on the next race.