From Rock Bottom to World Records: Avril McClement’s Midlife Reinvention

In this episode of Mom to MORE®, host Sharon Macey welcomes Avril McClement, a mom, grandmother, and two-time HYROX World Champion who’s proving that reinvention doesn’t have an age limit. From motherhood to marathons and from the UK’s National Health Service to the global fitness stage, Avril’s journey is a masterclass in resilience and redefining what’s possible after motherhood.

Avril shares how she turned heartbreak, depression, and divorce into fuel for a new beginning, finding purpose, strength, and confidence through movement. Now in her 60s, she’s breaking world records, inspiring women worldwide, and reminding us that it’s never too late to rewrite your story.

Tune in for a powerful conversation about courage, community, and midlife reinvention, and discover how age can be your greatest advantage in becoming your most authentic, unstoppable self.

[00:00] Introduction
[02:36] Motherhood, family, and finding deeper purpose
[05:40] Lessons learned from early motherhood years
[07:06] Starting over after loss and learning to let go
[11:52] Overcoming depression and rediscovering hope again
[14:55] Turning fitness into healing, strength, and empowerment
[18:24] From marathons to HYROX world competitions
[19:58] Breaking records and believing in what’s possible
[23:02] Lessons in reinvention, confidence, and self-belief
[25:26] What “more” means to Avril today and beyond

Meet my guest Avril McClement:

Instagram: @savageat65

Looking for More? Join the Mom To MORE® Community and grab your freebie: 6 Ways To Reinvent Yourself Beyond Motherhood at momtomore.com

Follow @momtomore on Instagram, Facebook and now on Pinterest.  @Sharon Macey on LinkedIn.

Keep an eye out for episode #50 of the Mom to MORE® podcast where Sharon is joined by Lori Sugarman-Li, redefining invisible labor and author of Our Home Our Pride. Coming soon - you won’t want to miss it ♥

• Episode Transcription

  Avril (00:00)

  I'd lost my home, my marriage, my self-esteem. And because of that, I didn't want to be around anymore. And it was almost as if this guardian angel was saying, now, come on, Avril, doing something very silly, who are you going to really hurt here? And obviously my family and my children, and they didn't deserve that. This is how low I have got. And I need to do something about this now, because I'm the only one that can get me out of this. And I did get stronger from that moment on.

  Sharon (00:32)

  Welcome to the award-winning podcast where motherhood meets reinvention. I'm your host, Sharon Macy, and this is Mom to More. I chat with remarkable moms who've embraced the art of reinvention, crafting their more by leveraging the skills they honed as stay-at-home moms. They share their experiences, struggles, and successes as they return to former careers, rediscover old passions, and chart entirely new paths, offering you

  the motivation and inspiration to help you answer the question, what do you want to do when your kids grow up?

  Hey, listener, big news. Momtimore is now an award-winning podcast, taking home a Silver Signal Award for Curators Shaping Culture. It proves that mom reinvention isn't just personal, it's powerful. And if you're new here, welcome. You'll wanna be part of this journey, so go ahead and hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Okay, on to today's guest. From motherhood to marathons and from the UK's National Health Service Operating Theaters,

  to the world championship stage, my next guest Avril MacLennan's journey has been anything but ordinary. She is breaking world records in her 60s, woohoo, as a two-time High Rocks world record holder and a double world champion and continues to be living proof that age is no barrier to excellence. You can see why I had to share her story. Fitness has always been a cornerstone of Avril's life, not just for physical strength,

  but for mental wellbeing. And that's so important. From running the London Marathon alongside her daughter in 2014, in her fifties, to conquering elite fitness competitions on a global stage in her sixties, Avril inspires with every stride, burpee broad jump and sandbag lunge. And this amazing mama, of course, was also a stay at home mom. Welcome Avril. I'm so thrilled to welcome you to the show.

  Avril (02:36)

  Thank you very much for inviting me.

  Sharon (02:39)

  Fantastic. Well, let's just jump in because I have so many questions I want to ask you. I always like to start my interviews with what I call my essential mom question and that is how many kids you have and where did you raise them?

  Avril (02:50)

  I have a son, he's the eldest, he is now, well he will be 40 next year. And my daughter, she is 37, 38 this year, both wonderful children. And I had them at that time, I lived in Nuneaton, not where I live now but in the UK.

  Sharon (03:12)

  Now you also have some grandchildren, right?

  Avril (03:14)

  I do. have now, and I've just had to just think then, I now have five. ⁓ think we last spoke, my son and his partner had a beautiful little girl. So I've got all granddaughters. It would have been nice without a grandson, but one has to appreciate, you know, she's arrived, beautiful, healthy.

  Sharon (03:32)

  I love that. Boy, there's a lot of estrogen flowing in your family. Okay. So let's talk about your mom journey. And I know that you were home with your son until he went off to school and then your daughter for a little less time because there were circumstances that arose. So your decision to stay home with your son, was it intentional? You know, what did that look like for you?

  Avril (03:54)

  Yeah, think when the, well, my son's name, by the way, is Chris, when I had, yes, the intention was to stay at home because to a certain extent, there is that expectation, isn't there really, to stay at home with your children? And I enjoyed that time, to be honest with you. It also gave me an opportunity to meet other mothers and a great opportunity to be around Christopher and do things with him and the thing that I do.

  take notes of, is rather odd, it, that really he was my first and I do remember where he was when he took his first steps. I remember what he was wearing and literally where my daughter was concerned, although obviously she came later, you know, I don't remember exactly what age she was and where she was and what she was wearing.

  Sharon (04:41)

  think that's such a hallmark of motherhood. It's like you remember those first. You remember the first haircut. You remember when they took the first step. remember all those things. And then those are, that's beautiful to have that.

  Avril (04:53)

  I do think to a certain extent when my daughter said, well how come you don't remember when I took my steps and what I was wearing and I said yes you know the second and circumstances were different and fortunately mummy couldn't stay at home all of the time you know and yeah I do think because of pressures I think it does affect those sort of things.

  Sharon (04:59)

  Because you were the second.

  Yeah, I get that. All right, so you have worn many, many hats. You're a National Health Service professional, dance school owner, performer. So in those early years of juggling work and family and your creative passions, what skills do you think motherhood gave you that you still use today? And was there a skill that particularly surprised you?

  Avril (05:40)

  I think it's fair to say that when you are bringing up children, you learn patience to a certain extent. You have a lot of perseverance and determination, that's for sure. think if I'm quite honest, in respect of something that I learned from that, it was possibly to say it was the patience aspect because I wasn't or haven't been the most patient person, you know.

  not that patient of others, but you had to be patient when it came down to children. And I think that was something then, and listening to your children, you know, it's, I think that provided me with an opportunity to, I suppose, really build on that, because you do listen to your children, there's no doubt about that. And you learn from that, you learn an awful lot from children.

  Sharon (06:33)

  Thank you, thank you for that. Those are skills that I've heard repeated over and over again, especially listening and patience and perseverance. I mean, those are three super important mom skills. So you've had to walk away from the things that you have loved. You experienced incredible highs, but also devastating lows. Your dance school, your theater school, even a promising business because life demanded change.

  So how did you find the courage to start fresh each time?

  Avril (07:06)

  You know what, it's fair to say Sharon, that's the one thing that my children have said about me, that they've always said that irrespective of what life brings to your door, you always pick yourself up. And I think it's that great sense of not wanting to fail and that I deserve to do better because yes, you could sit down and you could sink or swim. I have to say, for example, when I would go for a run, when I felt really low,

  And I would say, come on, you can do better than this. You've got this in you. You know, you can achieve a gain. You know, you may have lost in certain respects. That might be from a financial perspective or from expectations. But that driver, I think, is innate within me that I don't want to fail. And I think to a certain extent, that also may come from my parents, because they were

  very resilient, know, that they weren't particularly wealthy and they worked very hard in their lifetime and they faced, you know, various challenges in life and they never gave up. And also, I've been very, very fortunate to have a wonderful family around me and friends and I think most times of need, family and friends are one of the most important things in your life.

  Sharon (08:24)

  Yeah, that's so true. And I want to highlight what you just said, because that really resonated with me personally about the resilience and the grit and determination and not wanting to fail. It was either sink or swim. And I think for a lot of moms, there is that fear of failure, but you have to push through that and believe in yourself and know that you have what it takes to reinvent, to make things better, to make things the way you want them and to create

  whatever next chapter you want to be in your life and you've created multiple next chapters with various iterations in your life. So in that regard, I love your perspective on this. So what role did your children play in these decisions?

  Avril (09:08)

  I say that try not to show them when you're feeling down or nervous, frightened about the future. Although it sounds, you know, that bit of a cliche that my children also, my friends, they certainly are. And as they've got older, they know their mum. So I might put this smile on my face to everybody else out there and I may appear to be this very confident individual, but they know me.

  For example, when I certainly went through my second divorce, it really, really did put me in depth despair at that time. I was probably, it's to say, drinking more than I would normally drink. And they were the ones that were noticing mum was drinking more. And sometimes you don't necessarily, either you don't recognize it or you don't acknowledge it or you don't want to acknowledge it. And I needed that kick at the backside also from them to say, look mum, you're not going to find an answer in a bottle.

  Sharon (10:02)

  say

  how forward thinking of your children to call you out on that because that's big. A lot of times kids don't have the courage to say what you're doing mom is like not good for you it's not healthy. I really admire that. Hey Avril we are gonna take a quick break and when we come back we're gonna talk about your most challenging moments and also high rocks so don't go away folks be right back. And now a quick word from my sponsor Ally shoes. I gotta tell you these are some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn.

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  Okay, you know, I want to go to a point in your life when you said you felt, and I'm quoting you here, useless, worthless, and frightened about the future. You've dealt with depression. Was there an enough is enough moment that propelled you to find the strength to push through that lowest point in your life? And what helped you start believing in yourself again?

  Avril (11:52)

  think that there's obviously an awful lot of people out there that been through various different painful experiences in their life and they could possibly empathise with that. When I reached that depths of despair, because I felt I'd lost everything, you know, and I felt I'd lost my home, my marriage, my confidence, as you quite rightly said, my self-esteem, everything went. And because of that, I didn't want to be around anymore, Sharon, to be honest with you.

  When I then reflected this one evening on what was going through my mind, and it's something that you don't particularly always like to admit, when you suddenly think, well, I don't want to be on this earth anymore, you know? And I don't know, I believe in guardian angels. I don't know whether other people do, but I certainly do. I've had various experiences in my life to believe I have a guardian angel. And it was almost as if this guardian angel was saying, now, come on, Avril, doing something very silly, who are you going to really hurt here?

  and obviously my family and my children, and they didn't deserve that. This is how low I have got. And I need to do something about this now because I'm the only one that can get me out of this. And I did get stronger from that moment on. I was on antidepressants at that time. And to me, I wanted to be able to get off the antidepressants and I was very, very fortunate.

  that, I mean, my son-in-law is very much into nutrition and health and what have you. And he had told me about a nutritionist called Patrick Holford, who talked about people that were on antidepressants and that people with low serotonin levels could benefit from taking zinc, 5-HTP and amigas. Yeah, so I got the book and I read the book and I thought, right, I want to start taking control of my life. It worked for me and I swore by it.

  Such went to this day, I've not needed to seek the use of antidepressants in any way, or form. And I started my training. Yeah, I started my running, my fitness and slowly and but surely the Avril that was that I used to be was starting to blossom again. And my daughter actually said to me this one day, it's lovely to see my mum back, you know.

  And that was lovely. Yeah.

  Sharon (14:15)

  Right. Right. Well, we're going to hop into your fitness in a moment, but I just want to say, think we're both from that generation where it's sort of like, you got to pull yourself up at your bootstraps and just make it right. But you also had a community around you. I really admire that. All right. We're going to jump into your deep commitment to fitness. Clearly, as you just mentioned, it has played into everything. And when was it that you sort of discovered fitness? Obviously this was years ago.

  when you realize, moving my body produces the serotonin, makes me feel good, elevates my mood, and it has become a huge part of your life. And as you know, it's also a huge part of my life.

  Avril (14:55)

  Well, I was sporty at school. was captain of the hockey team and I also did track events, but not, you know, serious from a serious perspective. It was just what I did at school. And then when I went to college, I had to go trampolining and so forth. But dancing at that time played a big part in my life. And I think anybody that had dance lessons, particularly ballet, for example,

  It's a lot of strain and stresses on the muscles and on the joints over the years. And I love to dance. I came alive on a stage. I love to perform. And I've been very fortunate that I suppose it's fair to say that being able to get on a stage and perform, it didn't phase me standing on a stage doing presentations in front of chief executives or whatever. So that was something that was, if you like, skill that became part of my dancing. So being that performer,

  was also really as I got as later on, when I became involved in doing cabaret work, you had to be fit when you're two 45 minute spots on a stage, because I was part of a vocal dance group at that time, you know, you get very out of breath pretty quickly and with quick costume changes. And I think that the running side of it became serious for me at the time when I was suffering with depression, because I suffered with depression at an earlier age in my early

  Nobody knew why, my parents couldn't understand why, nobody knew why. And at that time, antidepressants were very different to what they are today.

  Sharon (16:30)

  A lot stronger, right?

  Avril (16:32)

  very much so, and they didn't suit me at all. And couldn't, long story short for that, I'd said to my mom at the time, I'm not taking these anymore. I can't and I won't take these anymore. And I did a very silly thing really, because I just came off them. You're to wean yourself off, but I just came off them. And I would cut on my trainers and I'd run. I would just run. And so then I then set myself.

  goal. ⁓ that time Coventry was doing a marathon and so I bought a book and I read the book about how to train. I coached myself to do a marathon and we

  Sharon (17:10)

  Time out, time out. You coached yourself to do a marathon. I did. That's impressive.

  Avril (17:15)

  Yeah and I did it in a great I did it in a good time at that time I did it in three just under three hours 40 minutes less than about 3.35 three hours 35 at that time.

  Sharon (17:26)

  That's incredible because these days people like there's running groups. So that's really impressive girl. I like that. Thank you.

  Avril (17:31)

  Thank you. But that is the difference, isn't it, really? That, you know, in the past you didn't have all those support groups and those support mechanisms. You didn't have all the gadgets and the fancy trainers, you know. In a pair of ordinary trainers, and I think that's another reason why my joints have taken a bit of a beating over the years. So to say that that's where I got my book, if you like, being fit and feeling healthy.

  Sharon (17:43)

  ran.

  Okay, so this is all leading us to what I want to talk about next, which is high rocks for the, our listeners who don't know what it is and truth. had no idea what high rocks was until our son competed in a regional competition in Las Vegas in February of 25. So please tell people, you know, quick, sort of down and dirty, like what is high rocks the competition.

  Avril (18:24)

  Pyrox is a phenomenal competition that involves running eight kilometres and which is split into one kilometres between various stations. And those stations will be a mix of strength and endurance really. So most people will be racing to beat personal best. And the only time I got to see it as a race in that sense was when I did the world championships.

  Sharon (18:47)

  I think people need to know they start, everyone is wearing a tracker on their ankle and they start everyone with like pretty large groups. So as soon as you break through a certain zone, that's when they start timing you. Our son also qualified for the world championship. The way I found you was he sent me your Instagram. That's why I reached out to you. Cause our son was also at Worlds and just to make it to Worlds was incredible. It's like the Olympics.

  And not only did you win in your age category, which is the 60 to 69, go mama, but you broke your own world record, which is really incredible. So congratulations for that. That is huge. You know, I wanted to say we're both in the 60 plus zone and like you, I'm finding that these are the most powerful and productive years since those hands-on years of motherhood for me. And you have proven that our sixties can be a launching pad

  Avril (19:26)

  Yeah.

  Sharon (19:44)

  and not a slow down. So for a mom listening right now who thinks her big goals are behind her, what do you say to her and what's the first step she could take toward her own next chapter, whatever it may be.

  Avril (19:58)

  gosh, I'd say it's definitely not behind you. We shouldn't live in the shadows. We should be still out there and use your age to empower you to reach for your goals and believe in yourself. It's about really what kind of life do I want now? I've got to a point in my life, for example, but I've had the high powered jobs and you certainly get to a point where, and this is my belief, that it's not about holding those

  high positions, it's about now doing something that you want to do. And I would say to somebody, was something that somebody had said to me a long time ago, and they said to me, if you were to pick up a magazine, what pages would you skim to, or what ones would you skip by? And I said, well, I would always skip to the health, fitness, and the beauty, because they are the things that interest me. So why are you not doing something that involves the things that interest you?

  rather than doing things that in the past that I've felt I've had to do. I've spent a lot of my life pleasing other people, Sharon, know, whether that was pleasing my parents, pleasing my ex-husbands. This is about doing something for me. And I'm so glad that I have that support mechanism still around me to be able to do that. They said that you are our inspiration. And that for me, if you like, was my driving force.

  And when I stood, I'm going to get quite, gosh, when I stood.

  Sharon (21:32)

  It is emotional, yes it is.

  Avril (21:34)

  When I stood on the podium with a flag and they were paying me anthem, I said aloud, I'm here because of a wonderful group of people that believed in me. Gosh. And I still remember my son shouting at me down the phone after I had broken the world record in London. And he was shouting, now when are you going to start believing in yourself? This is your time, mom. That people are still demonstrating in life.

  but you can achieve whatever you want to achieve if you put your mind to it, you know?

  Sharon (22:06)

  And age is not, I know, don't like crying here, age is not a barrier. I love your perspective on that, Avril. It is so powerful that yes, and I believe in that too. It's like now it's our time. We've raised the kids, we've done all the things that we had to do and now we get to do the things that we want to do. So another question for you, you've clearly lived this very

  full and varied life with, and you have been super open about the moments where you felt guilt or wish things had gone differently. And then you have moments of like standing on a podium and you're a world champion, you know, so you've, really run the gamut there. Looking back, are there choices in retrospect that you like truly regretted or have those moments shaped you in ways that you would not trade for anything?

  Avril (23:02)

  That's very interesting question. I had worked very hard during my career and I was very fortunate to work with some amazing people and certainly that brought its rewards and I went from having the most beautiful large barn conversion that I ran a business from as well with a big garden and some land. I now live in a very small, end terrace, three bedroom house with a very, very small garden and I sometimes have sat and thought

  is this really what my life has come to after everything that I have ever worked for and everything that I have lost? But then there is always that moment where I think to myself, yeah, I have had those beautiful homes, the beautiful furnishings and the very nice careers and so forth. But the one thing that still remains important to me, I still have my family and I still have my children and I still have

  my health. Yes, I do think to myself that one of my biggest regrets that I had, and I know that people say you should never have regrets, you should never look back. And my mum would always say rub salt on it, move forwards. But when I was running my theatre school, you know, I had some very young children that depended on me and I might sound arrogant and I was good at it. I put on some fabulous productions with these children, dancing, singing. I felt pressurised to give that up because one of the excuses of my ex-husband for his

  multiple indiscretions was because I didn't spend enough time with him. And so it was a decision that I took because I still had to work full time. I jacked in the actual theatre school. And I regret that because I loved doing that. That was one of those things that I really enjoyed and I got a lot of fulfilment out of it. And people said to me, well, if you've done it before then, and you you regret it, why don't you do it again? I said, no, because that was one door that opened and now it's closed and it's time to move on to something different.

  Really.

  Sharon (25:00)

  And it's hard to recreate something that might've been done in the past. You're so forward thinking about everything and that's what I really love about your story. Avril, we are unfortunately coming to the end of our time together, but I have a question that I ask all of the amazing mamas that I have the privilege of interviewing. And that is, since this is the Mom to More podcast, Avril McClement, what is your more?

  Avril (25:26)

  My more will be to gain my personal training qualifications because qualifications don't stop either when you're in your 60s because I'm also I'm gym trained but I'm personal training trained. So I want to achieve that. I also want to break my world record again and that is what I am training for and I want to continue to inspire others to say that you have every opportunity within you to make things happen in your life.

  Don't think of excuses. Think of the benefits of doing what you feel is right for you. And I do want to be able to bring what all my experiences, to be able to coach others to start believing in themselves. And so I would feel that any of the people out there that are the golden ages, if you like, 50s and above, that feel they can't walk into a gym or can't certainly

  you know, go and train with somebody. Just there is somebody out there that can support you to do that.

  Sharon (26:31)

  I would say who would not want to train with a high rocks world champion twice over. I mean, I would want to train with you. Yeah. And I love what you said about you could be in your 50, 60, seventies and hop into the gym for the first time. is never too late to start building that, that strength and that muscle mass. we know that for women, it is super, super important. So thank you for that. love that.

  Please tell our listeners where they can find you online. I know you're on Instagram, so tell everybody what your handle is and where else people can find you. And everything, folks, will be in the show notes.

  Avril (27:07)

  Yes, you can find me on Instagram and it's Savage at 65 and at is 18. So it's Savage at 65. My children were the ones that came up with that by the way. In fact, when I raced in London for the first time, they made a big sign Savage at 65 and one of the judges stood over me with Savage at 65.

  Sharon (27:30)

  have to tell you, Avril, I want to thank you for your time today. You are the personification of reinvention on so many levels, having multiple next chapters, and more importantly, overcoming things that could easily derail any human. So I want to thank you for your positivity, for your insights, for your kick-ass mentality, and to never stop growing or challenging yourself because you're terrific.

  Avril (27:55)

  Thank

  you so much, Sharon. I appreciate it. And thank you, everybody else, for listening.

  Sharon (28:00)

  Hey, this wraps another episode of Mom to More. If this conversation sparked something in you, hit follow or subscribe and leave a quick five-star review to help more moms discover the show that's shaping culture. And remember, you already possess the skills and experience you need to start on this journey because reinvention doesn't have an age limit.