For some, retirement means finally getting to kick back and relax, taking it easy. Not for Catharine Daly. When her daughter was on the cusp of graduating university, she had an idea which she proposed to her mother: to improve both their biking skills. It was when Catharine spent time on the road biking across Canada with her daughter that she decided to train to become an iron man athlete. “I never looked forward to retirement,” she says. “I can still remember being down on the bike when I thought to myself ‘I think I can do an Ironman.'” She was right. Once back home, Catharine started training. Hard. Not long after, she crossed that finish line and was dubbed an ironman, fulfilling her challenging goal.
In biking through Africa, Catharine recalls her joy in photographing her surroundings. Unlike in a car when you’re zipping by, biking allows her to really see everything around her and to capture it, too. Her compact Canon PowerShot G5 X proved to be an excellent tool to snap memorable shots along her ride. “If I saw something, I could pull (the camera) out immediately and take pictures,” she says, “then I would download the photos onto my computer.” Catharine says at 60, going downhill wasn’t an option; rather, she was going to do things she never previously had time to do. “It stimulates you.”
Also on RNR: