THere a pro, maybe EX pro Cyclist named Santiago Botero, he rode for the Kelme team in several TDF and one day classics in europe.
He made a career at the absolute peak of the sport of professional cycling but started riding later in life. He was actually a footballer (soccer). HE was on vacation in venezuela and decided to rent a bike to ride up a local mountain.
LAter in the day, he was drinking a beer and talking about his nice day of riding, some local said: how long did it take you to get to the top??? BOtero said: it took me xx:xx, the lcal said: thats funny because the world record is xx:xx held my none other than eddy merckx....
So Botero did it again with people followin him in a car watching...
HE became one of the premier level A grade cyclists in the European peloton, basically a dream job and a millon a year for riding a bike.
Its interesting to think about how many lance armstrongs are out there who are chugging natty ice in front of the tv when they could actually do something and do it well.
On a triathon form I was a member of they had a thread that was like "before and after you got into triathlons". there was one in particular of a guy who must have weighed 350lbs, just a total fat ass, not a muscular guy at all, a total blob. his after picture was him finishing the Hawaii Ironman in like 9:10...literally less than 30 minutes behind the pros during one of the hottest windiest race days in history. out of 3000 people, he was like 35th....and a lean mean 5'10, 150lb guy.
He had it all along but he had to want it and find the motivation in himself to do it. I wonder how many guys out there could really put a mark in the books if they had the motiation...