{"id":56464,"date":"2026-05-30T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T02:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=56464"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:33:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T02:33:00","slug":"how-an-ex-smoker-finally-quit-and-ran-an-ultra-marathon-6-months-after-kicking-the-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=56464","title":{"rendered":"How an ex-smoker finally quit and ran an ultra-marathon 6 months after kicking the habit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/05\/28\/7c738aa6-620e-4828-bfc4-d2e23982f7f5_078f1da9.jpg?itok=Xf8dvtoz&amp;v=1779941197\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">There is no convincing a smoker to quit. So what was the secret for Betania Victor, who used to burn through a pack a day just six years ago?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cFind something that makes quitting feel like a fair trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Born in Brazil and now living in Canada, Victor, 44, is an engineer by training who today works in the maritime industry. For much of her adult life, she had been <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">sedentary<\/span> and exhausted, and she had been hooked on smoking since the age of 14.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAs a smoker, we like to smoke,\u201d Victor says. \u201cPeople say, \u2018You\u2019re going to die fast.\u2019 We don\u2019t care. Quitting is a sacrifice. To give up something that made me feel so good, I had to exchange it for something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">Going cold turkey<\/h3>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That \u201csomething bigger\u201d began in her thirties when she discovered callisthenics and dance. Yet she remained a closet smoker.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">When a shoulder injury sidelined her from <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">callisthenics<\/span> in 2020, a friend suggested trail running and planted an absurd seed: training for an <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">ultra-marathon<\/span>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3355119\/how-ex-smoker-finally-quit-and-ran-ultra-marathon-6-months-after-kicking-habit?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no convincing a smoker to quit. So what was the secret for Betania Victor, who used to burn through a pack a day&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[23749,3698,15980,21045,1960,16115,7152,23750],"class_list":["post-56464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-exsmoker","tag-finally","tag-habit","tag-kicking","tag-months","tag-quit","tag-ran","tag-ultramarathon","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}