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| My Story |
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| I started bicycling about 18 years ago. I had been a
heavy smoker for about 30 years, having tried a number of times to quit, but not
succeeding. I had tried going "cold turkey" —
I had tried cutting down gradually — I had tried cutting down rapidly — I had
tried hypnosis. (This was prior to the nicotine patches now on the market.)
There are a number of sports you can still participate in even though you are a
smoker. I've sat on many a chair lift in Vermont in below freezing weather,
struggling to hold onto my ski gloves, poles, while reaching for a cigarette.
It's really tough to light one on the chair lift on a windy day, too, but I usually
managed. Biking, however, does work! When you come to the bottom of a hill and all other cyclists pass you with ease and you're gasping for breath, have to get off the bike and walk, you know just how bad off you are! Once having quit, while I probably will never be at a point of someone who has never smoked, I'm certainly far better than I was 15 years ago. (I have completed a number of metric century rides and three full century rides — 100 miles in a day. My top cycling in one year was 3,248 miles. I usually average about 2,000 miles a year.) Biking also helps to keep your weight down; most ex-smokers tend to put on weight. It also relieves the stress of quitting. Your bike(s) and biking gear will cost you far less per year than those packs (or cartons) of cigarettes! And it really saves on gasoline!
This thing we call "failure" is not the falling down,
but the staying down. |
