Respecting your elders

Hope you don't mind me sharing a little ego boost I got today...

There's a young punk I see all the time at the gym. He's definitely not one of the bigger guys, but is in good enough shape that I've hated him for a while. I've never spoken with him. But today, he came up to me and asked about my tattoo. So I told him I did an Ironman triathlon last year and it's kind of a tradition to get a tattoo afterwards (I didn't bother explaining that the whale was a squeaky horn). He said "yeah, I do triathlons and would love to do an Ironman someday but I can't imagine how much training it takes. I want to to do when when I'm older and I have the time." I guess he assumes that old people lead empty boring lives and have all the time in the world to train.

He said that doing an Ironman would be one of those "lifelong goals". I told him that I understood what he meant, and that I did mine right before my 40th birthday. He wants to do his before 30. Which could be in 5 years or 15 years for all I know. But he seemed genuinely impressed and made this middle-aged Ironman feel pretty good. I felt bad for putting itching powder in his jock.