A smoking gun

Cigarettes

cigarette (French "small cigar", from cigar + -ette) is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives,[1] then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter). The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the purpose of inhalation of its smoke from the other (usually filtered) end, which is inserted in the mouth.

That description, as taken from Wikipedia, is what I used to smoke. I smoked cigarettes. It may seem hard to imagine, but I did. I think I smoked a cigarette for the first time when I was in the 6th grade. I was busted smoking cigarettes with some folks at my Junior High when I was in the 7th grade. I smoked all thru high school and for 4 years in College. When I began to run to loose weight this running slowly turned into a hobby. The summer of 2006, I ran my first 5k race. It was a time of 24:24. I was very pleased. This race helped to spur me to all of the things I have done today and will do in the future.  It was that summer that I really began to get serious with my running. I was to the point where I would run between 15 - 20 miles per week. I talked with a few people about running a half marathon and they encouraged me to do it. The individuals name Fernando Rodriguez a co-worker of mine at Turner Universal in Nashville, encouraged me to do so. He indicated that I was already running enough each week to be ready for one. 

That summer I lived in an apartment with two of my Fraternity Brothers in Nashville. Every weekend we would go out party and drink at the bars. Every weekend I would end up buying a pack of cigarettes at the bar smoking them while I was drunk and waking up in the morning and feeling absolutely horrible. I couldn't breathe, smelled like smoke, and had horrible taste in my mouth. The thing was I wouldn't smoke at all during the week ever. It disgusted me to smell it, or touch them, but yet my drunkenness would take over at a bar and I would end up buying a pack smoking some and having the rest left over.

I was sick and tired of it. I decided one night sight on seen while in Chicago, visiting my friends from high school to quit smoking forever and dedicate myself to my running. This is when it happened. No more cigarettes for me from that point on.

When I look at major things that I have done that have impacted my life, quitting smoking was and is possibly the best thing I have ever done. Cigarettes are a horrible thing and do nothing for you but slowly kill you. I don't like to preach to others about not smoking, because it's their decision to smoke. I quit when I was ready and when I felt the need to quit. Ever since then my life has been better. It was easy to do, every time for like the next year I would be in a bar drinking, because that's the only time I ever wanted a cigarette was when I was drunk, I would simply remind myself that I was a runner (not yet a triathlete). How many people in the running community smoke cigarettes? ZERO, hopefully. If were to cave and smoke a cigarette, I would be a hypocrite, because of all the benefits that I got from running and preached about, would be washed away by the cigarette. So its been over 2 years since a cigarette has touched my lips, and not a day goes by where I don't think about how I am so happy that I quit smoking. Like I said before it was one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life. 

The reason for this post was something recently happened here in Dallas that I am very ecstatic about. They Dallas City Council banned smoking in all bars and establishments. This is great, because it will not only help the health of all people, but many people won't be lured into smoking. I am so happy about the smoking ban and can't wait to go out to a bar and not smell like smoke when I come home.