Exercise and snobbery/ the new fitness elite

I have had a chequered history with exercise.  First of all l come from a family whose life pretty much revolved around sport- team sports, golf, tennis.
We all played a team sport, our parents were into golf and pitch and putt. my mum got big into tennis with her girlfriends. my brothers played a range of team sports, l played team sports up til the end of my teens.
We cycled to school and walked everywhere with our friends in our free time.
We were very involved with our sports clubs so weekends were spent going to matches, our record was three matches in three locations in the one day, my mum did the whole packed lunch thing.
We realise now that it was a blessing for us as kids and we did have a great childhood, we got to be part of another community and we mad friends for life.

Now, as l got older l cycled on and off and walked huge amounts, for exercise, and as a mode of transport.  i swam on and off. l joined the gym, did box aerobics, pilates, yoga, chi gung. you name it, l joined it.

I travelled the world and saw that in warmer and drier climates people had more opportunities for outside exercise.

Then l got out of shape, what with work and having a young family and working full time and all that jazz, l literally did not have the energy.  Then on an off l would have burst of walking for a time.

Anyway, my point is that no sooner would l get back into my walking routine, of 25 minutes a day, which i think is just perfect, than somebody would say:
- walk longer distances,
-walk faster for longer
- build up your mileage,
-increase your pace


this progressed to
-work up to running
-there are lots of 5milers happening all the time

which led to people saying

-there's a 10k run coming up you should really give it a go.


But the ultimate is that now it has progressed to TRIATHLONS

all of a sudden your not worth a toss unless your doing a triathlon at the weekend.

I have seen people look down their noses at people walking, or cycling or going for a swim..

Well l just want to say  I WALK EVERY DAY, SOMETIMES 25 MINS, SOMETIMES 45 MINS,MAYBE AN HOUR. BUT IT IS ENOUGH, I AM HAPPY AND PROUD.

These new fitness elite remind me of the music snobs and the art snobs. THis is just the new form, and they are all off buying racing bikes and compression tights and feet stockings to run in. Well let them at it l say.
I just shove on my runners every morning and walk, sometimes l take my ipod sometimes l dont, l am not timing myself, trying to improve my pace, wearing a heart monitor, loggging my times on a gps watch. No...l am walking, moving, breathing in and out, smiling at the sunshine, smiling in the rain, happy to be alive...