Lise catches up with her dear friend from boarding school, Clare Capper, whose transformation story can't fail to leave you feeling inspired.
In 2018, at 41, Claire hit rock bottom - drinking too much, smoking, avoiding the life she knew she needed to face. Then, in early 2019, on a hungover morning in Queenstown, New Zealand, Lise planted a seed that would change her life: "Do a triathlon."
What happened next was extraordinary.
Since then Clare's lost four stone, completed multiple triathlons, fallen in love with cycling and endurance adventures and pushed herself to extraordinary limits. She has:
- Cycled Land's End to John O'Groats (930 miles in 9 days)
- Bikepacked 400 miles through the Alps on a mountain bike
- Completed the North Coast 500 in Scotland
- Raced gravel bikes across Europe
- And in May 2026, she's taking on a 500-mile ultra-distance cycling event
But here's what makes Clare's story so powerful for midlife women: she started all of this at 41. She couldn't swim. She was unfit. She was lost. And she transformed her entire life through movement, one step at a time.
In this episode, you'll discover:
- The moment Clare made the promise that changed everything
- How she learned to swim at 41
- Swimming on a bungee cord in a wild Dartmoor pool during lockdown (yes, really)
- The dinner that was just peanuts and jelly babies after cycling 90 miles
- Why Clare is motivated by fear
- How cycling brings freedom, swimming brings meditation, and walking brings therapy
Follow Clare:
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What is Walking This Way?
Welcome to Walking This Way - the upfront, no-nonsense podcast about midlife for women who are done with pretending it’s all fine.
Join Lise Thorne for honest conversations, unfiltered stories and a good dose of humour as she explores what it really means to be a woman in midlife - from shifting priorities and changing bodies to rediscovering joy, purpose and self.
Real talk. Real women. Real midlife.
Because this isn’t about surviving midlife - it’s about walking it your way.
Walking This Way is produced by The Good Studio.