They don't get me.

YES, I know what it feels like for people not to understand me choosing to do triathlon!! I live in a small southern town & wish I was 42!!

WHen I first started thinking about triathlon I was looking at a bike and asked my 15 YO son what he thought and he said "I dont think you should get it, you will never do this mom" for real! (but that is typical teenager negativity)

Anyway, I have trained all the harder because of that comment and he WILL be at the finish line!!

Other people in town think I am crazy for sure but most of those think sitting on a porch swing is a sport, are sedentary themselves and in poor health. But SOME of those who thought I was crazy to begin with are interested in triathlon themselves now- including all three of my sons.

When I first started thinking about this I was not even sure if people my age (47) did triathlon so I started researching and read about THIS LADY. Talk about inspiration!!! So the next one who says you are too old say oh no -Sister Modanna did a full Ironman at 82!!!

AND- Who cases who 'gets' you!! Be true to yourself, make good choices (getting in shape is a good choice!!), and think about the example you are being for them!! 

Lots of really good stuff here already. (I loved the remote controlled helicopter example) It's great that you've decided to change your life and get fit.  Hopefully, you have a few people in your circle that "get it" and are supportive.  If not, you've got BT, and yes, we get it.

There are all different kinds of "not getting it".  I had an interesting discussion with a couple of women the other day at the gym who exercise with the sole purpose of "staying skinny" (they're words, not mine).  While I have very low BF, I am not--nor have I ever been--"skinny".  They were asking me why I haven't gotten smaller with all of the training  I do.  Hmmm.  Smaller?  We sort of went back and forth a bit, and I was trying to be courteous, but they were not "getting" the performance aspect of training.  One said (and I'm paraphrasing), "Why not just work out less, and be thin--you know, not so muscular." 

Wow.

OK.  We just have a totally different set of goals.  Not that these things need not be mutually exclusive, but it sure would be nice if more people understood that fitness goals are not always just about how you look in your jeans or your bathing suit. 

The thing is, if my reading of society is even 20% accurate, then the last thing you want is to have everyone nod in agreement that you're doing something sensible. I mean, it seems that what is popular, accepted as the norm, the good life, is more and more based on lack of exertion, unappreciate criticism and consumption of others' creativity, obsession with the worst of humanity glorified in "reality" tv, defining yourself by a ridiculously expensive vehicle, buying jewelry and clothes that some magazine told us to, watching cooking shows but never actually cooking real food, twittering about celebrity gossip, and spending hours online to find the best price on cruises where you can do nothing but eat and eat and drink and drink and eat and eat.

Endurance sports, in and of themselves, are not necessarily always a better way to spend one's time and money, but they have helped to focus me in the direction I always craved: be a do-er, not just a watcher.

In other words, screw what the majority thinks. The majority think that artistic talent is discovered on American Idol. the majority recognizes any random Kardashian more readily than the Secretary of State. The majority are self-made idiots who ask nothing of themselves, but demand the world to entertain them instantly all the time, so long as that entertainment is brain-mushing lowest-common-denominator crap that reinforces their own uninformed prejudices. In the words of Louis CK, non-contributing product sponge ****s.

I'm really not misanthropic or anti-America or anything. But when hear anyone beat down by the race to medicrioty as if doing something for yourself not dictated by fast-food advertising, makes YOU ithe weird one, I get reactionary. You know what's weird? Sitting on a couch drinking sugar water in a bottle labeled Gatorade, while watching some other person bounce a ball on a screen. That's weird. Screw em. Get out there and move. Just don't expect anyone at the office to care. When you exhibit being a happier and healthier person and someone asks what's different, then tell them. Or do what all 40ish overweight people are required to do. Start a blog and write as if anyone else actually cares. Weird thing is, eventually someone will. Someone who gets it, and wants in on the conversation. That's been my experience anyway.

You are ridiculously awesome!  Really well said.