Luckily it wasn't my wedding anniversary!

My 35th birthday marked the 10 year anniversary of me quiting smoking. My lungs should now have returned to their pre-smoking capacity, hurray!

Quiting for me wasn't difficult, I had a very good incentive.  My girlfriend at the time told me she wouldn't go out with me unless I quit, so I did, there and then. It turned out to be one of my better decisions, we've been married for 7 years and have a beautiful daughter.

Today I'm a few pounds (ok, maybe more than a few) heavier than I was before I quit smoking, but I don't put that down to quiting.  For me quiting coincided with a change from a job where i was on my feet all day to the sedantry life of a web developer, that and a bit of soon-to-be-approaching-middle-age spread.

To help combat this, for the past five or six years i've been cycling regularly to help improve my fitness, and although the improvements haven't come quickly, they have been steady.  This year I entered with a team in Mountain Mayhem, a 24hr mountain bike endurance race finishing repsectably in the top 25% and will be taking part in the first Etape Cymru (literally means "Welsh Stage") a 100mile sportive with 6000ft of climbing.  Something that i would never have thought I could do 10 years ago.

I know theres a few people who might read this who are trying to quit, stick with it, it's really is worth it in the end!