You seem confused. Escalators are in fact made so people don't have to walk up/down stairs. I don't walk up/down the escalators to the cafeteria where I eat lunch, and they are only wide enough for one person so if you're stuck behind me, tough ****. Usually I'm wearing 3" stiletto heels and don't feel like navigating stairs in them if I don't have to. But the reason doesn't matter.

You don't get to be your body shape (rail thin) by riding your bike 10 miles a day and eating well. It's your metabolism, you were born with it, and you've done next to nothing to earn it. (I realize you run marathons and I'm not trying to downplay your accomplishments on that front.) Even if you did used to weigh 100lbs more and worked really ****ing hard to lose that weight, well, congrats. Other people get to make the decision that it's not worth working that hard, and it doesn't make them bad people. I'd guess by looking at you that you're an ectomorph. Some people are endomorphs, and it makes losing weight really hard. Or maybe they have thyroid or PCOS or take antidepressants or other meds that make your body hold on to weight. Or maybe they are dealing with other stress in their lives and just don't have the energy to diet and exercise. Should they, for their own health? Yeah sure. But is it any business of yours? No ****ing way.

Hating/judging someone because they are overweight is just really, really lame.

I have sympathy because I did diet once, to try to lose some of the extra weight on the lower half of my body. I didn't have a bike back then, but I worked out 5 days a week and counted every damn calorie I ate. I eventually lost 5 pounds, and then I plateaued. I also became an obsessive, miserable person. Dieting is not ****ing fun, and I have no problem with people that just don't want to go through that. I have overweight friends and I often eat more than they do, yet people assume they are the ones eating pizza for dinner three nights in a row (guess what, that was me). I'm just lucky that my body only turns that into 1 extra pound rather than 5.

People that don't bike don't realize how 4.5 miles feels, so to them it sounds like a lot. That's true whether they are fat or skinny. I used to live 8 miles from downtown and before I started biking I thought that was WAY too far to ride to work.