Episode 39 Featuring Age Group Athlete Candice Heys

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Candice is now in age group 40-44 . She started Triathlon as a 35-39 . 

 Previously Candice had always run as a way to stay healthy and spend time with her dad they just ran around the town and village roads after school a few nights a week together from  being about 11 or 12 but she never liked races and learnt that she wasn’t cut out for racing from school events where she always seemed have something go wrong . 

Candice had her daughter when she was 23  Then she  joined Trawden running club just really as a way to not have to run alone on dark winter evenings, Trawden runners were a small club and b4 long they were advising her to join Clayton Harriers a bigger club So she was introduced and  moved to them and by now was really enjoying running and the people she was  meeting were amazing . The run coach at Clayton at the time was a superb guy , he did the speed work sessions and really helped Candice. She had never heard of fell running but Clayton training runs on Pendle hill were where her love of off road running began to flourish.

2003 she ran the London marathon but from then on she focused on Fells and mountains, in 2005 Candice did the Everest base camp marathon and in 2008 was selected for GB mountain running team. She was literally on top of the world loving everything about mountains and running

Candice made a decision to try to run London marathon again for a better time and from there her problems started.

The first gift she was given was 2 foot fractures , 1 was an evulsion fracture caused by impact, 2 was a stress fracture from running too much - these little nasties were what drove Candice to swimming, she got through the first stress fracture with some breast stroke sessions and her not so good front crawl , but when the 2nd fracture happened Candice was determined to to give swimming some credit for its efforts to keep her sane and  decided it was worth learning how to swim properly so that if ever she needed it again she could do it better and get more out of it . 

Candice  was lucky to have a friend who was a national level swimmer as a child and she taught her the basics and so she  just kept going with it,  like with running Candice  didn't want to lose all the gains so  just kept it going once a week and then she venture onto an open water swim course and start getting into the lakes 

 Candice  continued running and litte bit of swimming but no more marathons - back to her beloved trails and hills. 

Candices next gift was a bad back - she was diagnosed with spondylolithesis and spent a few years struggling with her back she was unable to sleep let alone run for almost 2 years  during this time sh took up cycling, her husband bought her her  first road bikes and she kind of enjoyed it and it  kept her  fit and she could get out and look at the hills and mountains that she so adored . 

After 2 injections into her spine she finally started to feel better and  went to Mont Blanc to try to climb it .

During this adventure Candice  was given her 3rd gift . Her knees started to become very painful this was the start or what lead to 2 knee operations one on each knee  and being diagnosed with knee cap damage that was irreparable which put an end to her running up and down mountains dreams once and for all. 

So as Candice  cant run hills ,  cant run far,  cant run many miles per week , its just too horribly painful so what she could do

swim cycle and run a bit =  SPRINT TRI 

 So it was 2016  Southport sprint that Candice  qualified for Düsseldorf ETU then she decided to try a standard distance she actually qualified for standard distance as well,   Then the icing on the cake was finding out the ETU race was in Kitzbhule - a Ski resor