I quit after 11 years. This is what I did:
1)- Nicorette. Kind of gross, but your not buying it for the flavor. Besides, smokes are way more gross than the gum. Whenever you have a craving, pop in some gum, chew twice and then put in between your gum and lip (like chew). If you get another, 2 more chews, and back between the lip and gum. It took away most cravings (physical ones), and took the edge off the realy bad ones.
2)- The patch. I went on it for the first 3 days. It got me over the toughest part.
3)- Mental. I reminded myself that I had to go from being a pack a day smoker to a non-smoker, and that there was a certain amount of pain involved. I comapred it to walking 100m over broken glass. For every smoke I had (I had 3 after I quit), I imagined that I would have to go back 10 metres. I knew I had to walk the 100m, so by smoking, I was just making it harder on myself as I would have to walk that 10 metres over again. This is what really allowed me to quit.
The only way to ensure stronger cravings is giving in to the next one. Your only chance at getting weaker cravings is to not give in to the next one.
It gets better, and remember - you have to do it sooner or later....might as well be now.
Good luck, and congrats.
Oh yeah, and running and water are great too.