My husband and I were fortunate to have all access passes for IMLP, so we were able to be in the VIP tent right at the finish line. I was standing at the railing just a few minutes before Belinda Granger came in to finish. I look over the railing and right up against the railing where all family and friends were standing was this man and his son. The man was smoking!!! There were two people standing with me and we started talking about how rude it was. He’s there with his big cigarette blowing smoke into the finish shoot…understand his belly is touching the barricade…he’s right there. So I’ve had it…can’t believe it! And I yell…“Hey, you need to put that cigarette out!” Really loud! He looks at me (mind you I’m up in the protected realm of the upper level tent) and says “WHAT??” And I say “PUT IT OUT - you are blowing smoke all over where the athletes are going to be.” He says, “Who are you?” And I say, “I’m the girl telling you to PUT YOUR CIGARETTE OUT.” The guy next to me says something too, as does the nice Sugoi rep…and he grunts takes one last drag and puts it out!
Stares at me something wicked, but the kicker is…his kid takes his little hand clapper thingy and smacks his dad in the face!
Oh, well chalk another one up for the SMOKE PATROL!
Good on you.
some people are just clueless.
Pack of Marlborough’s = $4 (guessing); Training for months & racing all-out to win = $14,000 US; fat guy with Molson muscle being told to ‘butt’ out = priceless!
Oh I believe it. Far too few people in our country support a man’s freedom to pollute these days.
I bet you hate dogs at races too, don’t ya? 
Wonder if smoking spectators along the alpine TDF route get yelled it.
“Hey, put that out, here comes the Frenchman, he needs clean air! … Hey, here comes an American: Be sure to light up and make a cloud for him to bike through!”
Especially dogs that smoke and rudely cross the finish line with their owners.
He says, “Who are you?” And I say, “I’m the girl telling you to PUT YOUR CIGARETTE OUT.”
I love it!
I moved to Maine about 2 years ago and you basically can’t smoke anywhere. Now I’m spoiled and am shocked whenever I see someone smoking in a public type of setting.
Was smoking against the law in that spot right there? If it is, then ignore everything below, and you were justified.
I am very-anti smoking. But I think this guy should have told you to shove it up your ass and mind your own goddamn business.
If it wasn’t a designated non-smoking area, perhaps that’s something they could add to future IM events. I’m all for smoker’s rights (yes, you read that correctly), so long as not even one non-smoker is bothered by their smoking. I just wish the police would start ticketing those drivers who fling their cigarettes out the window for littering.
Glad you did something about it. Every race I’ve done this year had some a$$ smoking somewhere around it. Swim start, T1 or T2 or on the run.
Did similar at the Washington Fair a couple years ago. Kids are in line to go on a ride. Big crowd. I see one yahoo (about 17) with his girlfriend in the middle of it all, lit cancer stick hanging, blowing smoke all over (my daughter is really close to him in line). I’m on the ground, and catch his eye.
“Put it out.”
He shrugs, takes another pull.
“Put it out ass hole.”
He looks the other way, but tries to hide it down low.
I see the smoke still rising, so I jump on the rail.
“I’ve been nice about it so far, and I’m sure the people around don’t want to have to breathe your stench, so put it out before I drag you out here and put it out on your tonsils.”
He then stomped it out on the ground.
Fucking moron. Nothing gets me more hot than some one who thinks their right to smoke trumps every one else’s right to NOT have to breathe it. And if it’s a pregnant woman, I feel like just handing her a gun and telling her to shot the kid now, because she’s making choices for that child that she has NO business making.
About as bad as the guys smoking at the door to the ER this weekend, as we played with a baby outside, right next to a sign saying “no smoking within 50 feet of hospital”.
The poster here just happens to be my wife. I was sitting behind her minding my own business oblivious to her verbal bitch slapping of the guy. I then heard bits and pieces of the yelling and thought to myself, “please God, dont let this be some gigantic guy she is yelling at” because you know who is going to be the one throwing punches, not her…and my A race is just three weeks away
Love it. You did what most of us want to do but don’t have the guts to. Smokers that have complete disregard for who has to inhale that shit make me SO angry! My dad died from smoking (he just refused to quit) so I have a particularly strong hatred for that habit because it can also harm those around the smoker rather than the smoker him or herself!
Even as an ex-smoker… I can’t stand it when people are the self-proclaimed “Patrol” of other peoples conduct.
Wonder if smoking spectators along the alpine TDF route get yelled it.
“Hey, put that out, here comes the Frenchman, he needs clean air! … Hey, here comes an American: Be sure to light up and make a cloud for him to bike through!”
Except that the order is backwards. The Americans have come through now put out your cigarettes; here come the French.
So you dont mind it when an idiot smokes up the finish line of an endurance event…but you do mind it when someone has the balls to call them on the carpet. Go smoke all you like, but when your smoke invades my lungs, and I am stuck next to you, like it or not, we are going to have words. Now you will say that in this case, we were not stuck there. Tell that to the athletes in the finishers chute.
Your conduct, if it affects only you, is your issue but when your conduct means I have to choke on your stench, then we’ve got a problem.