To break three hours and for a bet, I quit smoking after sixteen years. As of 2 PM today, it has been fifty days without a single cigarette. Physically, I no longer feel the itchiness in my heart, mouth, and teeth, nor the urge to light up whenever I see a cigarette. Psychologically, there are still occasional temptations. I often dream of smoking and then feel depressed and regretful all night, only to wake up and realize it was just a dream.

Before this, I had quit smoking countless times, the longest being over ninety days. I had even planned to celebrate on the hundredth day and had thought of a boastful post for my social media. This plan failed on the ninety-eighth day when a colleague enthusiastically handed me a Marlboro.

After that, my daily cigarette consumption increased from one pack to one and a half. Even when my lungs hurt, my throat coughed, or I had a severe cold and fever, I still needed a cigarette to ease the craving. I would wake up at 3 AM, walk a kilometer to a 24-hour convenience store to buy cigarettes. My smoking frequency reached an almost pathological level: before and after every meal, before and after using the bathroom, before getting in the car, after getting out, before boarding a plane, after landing, before sleeping, and after waking up. Only by immersing myself in a sea of nicotine did life seem meaningful.

At the peak of my addiction, I smoked two packs a day, sometimes not even making it to bedtime. When the craving hit, I had to light up immediately to feel energized. The most outrageous thing I did was ask a security guard for a cigarette during the Xi'an Marathon, which gave me the motivation to finish the race.

I was a bona fide heavy smoker and a marathon runner. My heart and lungs should have been my top priority, but I relied on my youth and decent amateur performance to be overly confident. I boldly claimed, 'Smoking has nothing to do with breaking 3:30,' 'Smoking has nothing to do with breaking three hours,' and 'With my current mediocre ability, I don't need to quit smoking to improve my heart and lung function.'

I was proven wrong. After setting a personal best of 3 hours and 11 minutes at the Wuhan Marathon, I set my next full marathon goal at three hours. I quickly started training according to a sub-three-hour plan. One part of the training required me to increase my pace from 5 minutes per kilometer to 4 minutes per kilometer over a 15-kilometer run.

During my first training session, I was utterly disheartened. When I increased my pace from 5:00 to 4:10, my lungs felt like a broken engine burning oil, spewing thick black smoke through my throat. My heart rate soared to a terrifying 198. I was still 10 seconds away from my target pace of 4:00 and had two kilometers left. The reality check was swift and brutal.

I gave up on the last two kilometers. Although marathon running is a competitive sport, it is still an extreme sport. Ensuring health and safety, knowing one's limits, and not pushing oneself too hard is the right approach for an athlete. Reckless effort is not advisable; safety and health are paramount. Understanding when to give up is a form of discipline.

If I couldn't even get through a small training session, there was no hope of breaking three hours in a full marathon. In subsequent training sessions, I continued to follow the plan. Although the initial excruciating discomfort was gone, I still couldn't reach my target training state. I would be out of breath after a few steps, and my heart and lungs couldn't keep up with my legs.

Until the day of the bet mentioned at the beginning, I impulsively made a bet with the old drunkard Chen Zhong (a key member of the 3:30 bet). He wouldn't drink until July, and I wouldn't smoke. Whoever lost would run ten laps around Olympic Forest Park (about 107 kilometers), and we each posted screenshots on social media. Thus, I found myself in another bet, worried that one day I might quit smoking but become addicted to gambling.

However, unlike before, this bet was significant to me, and I was determined. I had been unable to reach my target pace, and my heart rate remained high. Deep down, I wanted to quit smoking but never had the right opportunity to start. Quitting smoking requires the right timing and a concerted effort. To me, smoking is binary: you either smoke or you don't. There's no middle ground of smoking less or occasionally.

The first week was the hardest. I had three to four intense cravings daily, with itchy teeth, a runny nose, red and swollen eyes, and a general sense of lethargy. Every time a craving hit, I would go for a run, exhausting myself to the point where I no longer wanted to smoke.

I finally made it through the first day, the third day, the seventh day, and the tenth day. The cravings gradually diminished, and my mental state began to normalize. I no longer woke up with a bitter mouth, a dry throat, or dry eyes. My heart and lung function gradually improved. From the first day to the fifteenth day, my training pace increased from 5:00 to 4:00, and sometimes I could even reach a pace of 3:45 in the last kilometer. My heart rate dropped from 170-190 to 150-160, and my maximum oxygen uptake increased from 54 to 57.

Clearly, these were the benefits of quitting smoking.

On the nineteenth day of quitting, I participated in my first half marathon. I started the first kilometer at a pace of 3:45. Although I had to slow down later because my heart and lungs couldn't keep up, and my pace became erratic, I still finished the race at a pace of 4:10, completing it in 1:28. Before quitting, I couldn't even dream of a 4:10 pace. Back then, I could barely sustain it for a kilometer. Now, I could run a half marathon at that pace. Although my breathing was a bit labored, my body didn't have any severe reactions, and my heart and lungs didn't protest as violently. This was another benefit of quitting smoking.

On the twentieth day of quitting, I calculated my expenses with a colleague who had successfully quit smoking last year. I used to smoke one and a half packs of Soft Yuxi daily, costing 36 RMB. Averaging it out to one pack a day, I had spent about 140,000 RMB over sixteen years. The volume of cigarettes I smoked could fill about one cubic meter. What a terrifying number.

After doing the math, my colleague happily told his wife on WeChat, 'Honey, we just calculated that I've saved 6,600 RMB in the eleven months since I quit smoking.' He used to smoke Hongtashan Classic 100, which cost 10 RMB per pack. He had smoked for over ten years and quit last year when we made a bet. I relapsed on the ninety-eighth day of quitting.

As I write this article, I have quit smoking for fifty days again.It's neither long nor short.In the quitting group I joined, out of over two thousand people, only 121 remain. The number of survivors may decrease further tomorrow.

In fifty days, I have overcome my physical addiction to smoking. I hope that in the next fifty days, and the fifty days after that, I can overcome the psychological addiction and completely rid myself of this bad habit of over a decade. To break three hours, to run farther and longer, and for my health, I am willing to spend more time running this endless marathon. This time, I seek neither results nor pace, only a life without regrets.

I am grateful for this bet and to the drunkard who made it with me...

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