Last Saturday I became a Hyrox Finisher

I’m ashamed to admit it but I nearly pulled out. The late heat time I was allocated and my predicted slow time could have meant that I would have been finishing at the same time as the PRO men. I would have been one of the few women left on the course. The thought felt humiliating. But after sitting with it for a few days and a number of conversations I reconciled myself to the situation. I was then offered an earlier heat time so it started to feel more comfortable.

But I was nervous. So nervous. I’d done the training, I knew that I could do the exercises, but I hadn’t done this volume of work before. Apparently Hyrox is comparable to running a half marathon, an event I completed back in 2017. But burpee broad jumps hadn’t featured in that.

I couldn’t visualise being a finisher even though common sense told me that it was more than achievable.

My kick off time was 17.10hrs. I’d registered the day before so all that was required was for my number to be marked on my forearm, a catch up with other members of my gym who were either competing or spectating, bag drop off, timing chip strapped around my ankle and a warm up.

As I lined up with my fellow competitors the nerves dropped away. I could do this.

Hyrox consists of eight functional workouts each preceded by a 1 km run. A functional exercise is described as one that that readies your body for daily activities such as pushing, pulling, carrying, getting up and kneeling down.

Each run consists of 2 laps of the venue. As you approach the end of each lap there is a screen which informs you whether you need to do another lap or your workstation number. It is all very efficient. You’d think that you’ll always know whether you have run one or two laps but as fatigue starts kicking in it is not so easy. On the penultimate run I failed to look at the screen. As I approached IN I couldn’t decide whether I’d run 1 or 2 laps. For a nanosecond I considered running another lap but decided that I’d just suck up the time penalty. As it was I’d ran the two.

The workstations are as follows:

Ski Erg -1000m

An easy workstation to kick off with. I’d already decided that I was going to do it at a moderate pace. I had anticipated completing it in 6 minutes. I was dead on.

Sled push- 100kg (including the sled) 12.5 metres x 4

A fairly easy workstation. I predicted 5 minutes but came in at 3.15. I was aware that my push is fairly fast but I needed more recovery at the end of each 12.5 metre push than the other competitors.

Sled Pull – 75kg (including the sled) 12.5 metres x 4

I found this workstation fairly brutal. I hadn’t practiced it as much as I should have. My technique wasn’t great so I was fairly inefficient. You know you are being slower than the other competitors when the judges start encouraging you. One judge gave me a lot of encouragement. I had predicted 12 minutes for this workstation. I did it in 9.15 but it was far harder than I had anticipated.

Burpee Broadjumps -80 metres

When I first signed up for Hyrox this was the workstation that I feared the most but during the training the fear subsided. I’m always going to hate them but I started to use a step through technique which was less fatiguing.

The judges were very strict. You were required to place your hands by your feet to start the burpee. This was a change from the information in the technical briefing where your hands could be placed up to a forearm length in front of you. There is no way I can place my palms by my feet and then do a squat thrust back. I just don’t have the flexibility. So I stepped back into it. This proved to be fairly efficient.

It was a brutal workstation. It took me 13 minutes. I’d predicted 15 but it was so much harder than I thought it was going to be. As I moved into the next run my arms felt heavy. They had been worked.

Rower – 1000 metres

An easy workstation. I probably could have upped the intensity. I finished in less than 6 minutes but it took a lifetime (probably 30 seconds) for a judge to give me the thumbs up.

Farmers Carry – 16kg kettlebells x 200 metres

An easy workstation. I only needed to put the kettlebells down once due to the fatigue in my grip and the pressure on my shoulders. I’d predicted 5 minutes but came in at 2.52.

Lunges- 100 metres with a 10kg sandbag

I had feared this workstation as I wasn’t sure how my knees would be feeling by this stage of the competition. As it was they were feeling good. No pain, good flexibility. But the workstation was fairly intense. I could only do a handful case lunges before I needed to take a short rest. It was probably at this stage I started asking myself why was I doing this. But I did it. I was into the final run and the last workstation.

Wallballs -75 with a 4kg wallball

This was brutal. Although I’d practiced these I’d never done 75 in one go and never after what was well over 2 hours of work. I was slow. I was told I wasn’t squatting low enough so was offered a stool to touch down on. This proved beneficial as I bounced off it.

The 75 wall balls seemed to go on forever. I could hear people screaming my name. I questioned the functionality of it. Finally, number 75 was in the bag. I’d predicted 15 minutes. I did it in 10.40 but it felt a lifetime.

I walked over the finish line (I couldn’t muster up the strength to run) with a big grin on my face. I got handed my finisher badge and a can of Redbull. I’d done it.

It was a great feeling. Very few women of my age compete in Hyrox. Looking at the all time rankings out of 8,487 female finishers only 41 are over 60 years of age. Coming in at 2:26:17 places me well down the rankings but plenty of room for improvement. Whilst I had overestimated how long it would take me to complete the workstations I’d underestimated my running times. I’d estimated 8 minutes per kilometre. This proved accurate for the first four but by the time I got to number eight it took me over 10 minutes. One area for improvement.

So would I do it again? I’ve signed up for the next London one in May 2023 with my daughter. We are competing as a double. We both have to do the 8 runs but we share the workstation load. I won’t have to do 75 wall balls.

And I’m planning to run again on my own. The event is well run, well supported. The exercises are functional. I’m not requiring my body to do anything that normal life wouldn’t throw at me. Apart from those wall balls.