Today I have not smoked for 9 months and 15 days. I honestly never thought I would make it here (definitely never hitting the 3-month mark). Especially while my boyfriend continues to smoke. My best friend even said I thought you would never quit and turns out a lot of people in my life felt the same way. It unfortunately had to take losing two important people in my life to make this change stick. My grandma Nov 3rd, 2021 (74 yrs taken by covid) and my great grandpa Nov 12th, 2021 (99 yrs). My great grandpa’s story was posted in the US Observer which was pretty cool. Anyways it was a very hard week that week, but it triggered something inside me. It made me more determined than ever to change my life.
Now looking back, it was very hard the first few months, and my boyfriend did not make it any easier. Some days it felt like he wanted me to fail and go back to smoking. Like he didn’t want me to change.
I tried to quit January 1st 2022 but eventually slipped back up and smoked. January I also signed up for my first running race ever… a 30K (18 miles) trail run dedicated to my grandma and great grandpa. Mind you I’ve never done a race in my life, and I had a two-year break from running. The farthest I’ve ever done in my life was 6 miles on the road. So, I started training for this race and focused on that every day instead of smoking. Finally, March 28th, 2022 would be my final quit date.
Come June I ran my first 30k race to be expected. It was hard, I broke down, cried, I was in so much pain despite how much I had been training, told myself I wouldn’t make it to the finish line, and I was stupid for thinking I could do this race. Eventually I hit a high point, the negative thoughts subsided and I continued running. I made it to the finish line 4 hours and 30-ish minutes later and couldn’t have felt any more accomplished and ecstatic that I made it. Which lead me to sign-up for my first marathon that August, I completed that and felt awesome about it. (I also chose one of the hardest marathons to participate in and managed to complete it a few minutes shy of the cutoff time).
I finally feel free of cigarettes the beginning months were ruff but so worth staying with the struggle and not another puff no matter what. In a few more days I’ll be running my second marathon with my best friend (got her interested in this running journey), and I plan to start training for Ultra Marathon’s this year. To be saying this, seems crazy but it truly has been a great focus to have in my life. There is light at the end of the tunnel, you just have to stick it out and it is so worth it.
If you made it to here thanks for listening
If anyone uses strava feel free to add me. I’m looking for friends on there to stay motivated.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/cheree_blanchard
Great Grandpas story if anyone interested: https://usobserver.com/thad-everett-blanchard-sr-a-united-states-hero/
