Elissa did her first triathlon in 2007.  I realized at that time, that if I could attain that level of fitness to do those minimums, it is a good base point for fitness. 

I started bicycling & walking.  My knee was giving me trouble so I did not think I could run.  I mentioned it to Dr Kurt, Fire of Life Chiropractic, & he popped it back into place & I started to run/walk.  It took a while but I eventually got so I could run the Hamilton Greenbelt path (appox. 2.7 miles), & then the 6.2 for the Capital 10K. 
My point in mentioning this, is to start where you are at,  try something,& work your way up from there.  If you, like me, had no idea what you would like to do, start trying different things & see what works for you. 

A few helpful links:

http://www.jillianmichaels.com/     I bought her book 'Mastering Your Metabolism'  not knowing who she was.  Then came across her '30 Day Shred' dvd.  It worked - lost 2 + inches from my waist in the 1st 30 days.  Getting ready to sign up on her web site to get some more strenghting excercises to add to the mix.

http://www.laketravis.com/cycling/  Okay - I don't ride with these guys - yet  - but I follow what they do by getting on the e-mail list & someday I will atleast join them on an easy ride.

http://www.runtex.com/runtexu/training/5K/default.asp  I found this useful when I was getting started.