Last Sunday I competed in Hyrox for the 3rd time. Competed is probably stretching the definition as the only person I was going to beat was myself.

Hyrox is an ever growing fitness event. In my first Hyrox event (November 2022) I was one of 411 women. On Sunday the number had increased to 960. A 125% increase if my dodgy maths is correct.

It is advertised as the competition for Every Body. It focuses on functional fitness, movements of everyday living: running, walking, pushing, pulling, carrying. No clamouring over walls or swinging across monkey bars. And no cut off time. But it is challenging, an event that has to be prepared for.

I started to train for it a number of months ago. Just after doing the women’s double event with my daughter in May. My aim was to improve on my solo time. I had ambitions to knock 26 minutes off my time but that wasn’t going to be. I put the work in but didn’t get the results I hoped for. Although I got slightly faster as a runner my VO2 max didn’t improve. It actually declined slightly. Is this age or heart related? I don’t know. A question for my cardiologist at my next appointment.

Not that it is too shabby. At 30 It is still high for a woman of my age.

As race day approached I did seriously consider deferring my place. As well as my training not producing the results I had hoped for, I managed to injure my hamstring four weeks out. But after a chat with my PT I told myself that it didn’t matter if I wasn’t any faster as long as I finished. 

Race day arrived. I was nervous. The first time it was fear of the unknown. Now it was fear of the known. The thought of those 75 wall balls at the end was not good.

As I approached the start line I set the timer on my watch for 2:26:17. My previous time. I knew that if I was going to match this I would need to have completed the burpee broad jumps when the timer hit 1:15.

And I was off. Here I am smiling at the first workstation. The Ski Erg. Smiling was in short supply after that. The Sled Push felt harder than last year, the Sled Pull a little easier. 

But the burpee broad jumps were brutal. I remember them being so, so hard last time but they felt even harder. I started to feel sick. I was aware of a man encouraging me all the way down the first 40 meters. I later found out he is a bit of a legend in the world of Hyrox. I later contacted him on Instagram to thank him. He replied ‘Very welcome. You smashed it sooo so inspiring to watch, keep it up, no surrender’.

At the end of 40 metres (the turn) I stopped to catch my breath. My daughter offered me some jelly babies which I refused as I felt sick. A gym buddy offered me some water which I took. And then went back in. At one point I found myself standing up not knowing whether to do a burpee or a broad jump. I looked over at my PT who told me to jump. It was messy.

When I finally completed the 80 metres I looked at my watch. I was on target to come in at the same time.

64 minutes later I was heading for the dreaded wall balls. My daughter gave me a couple of jelly babies, my PT told me I had 11 minutes to do the wall balls and get to the finish line.

I’ve had to dig deep at other times in my life and this was right up there.

I got to 60 wall balls. I had 15 to go. I looked at my watch. 2:10 minutes to match my previous time. I glanced over at my PT, the other trainers, my daughter, gym buddies. They were screaming at me. I went for it.

I knocked out those final 15 wall balls as if my life depended on it and ran to the finish line. I dropped to my knees. I’d beaten my previous time by 56 seconds. 

What an amazing feeling of achievement. Out of 960 women that competed I came in at 946. 14 from last, but an improvement on last year.

My takeaways:

• My hydration wasn’t right. I felt dehydrated throughout the race despite my visits to the water station. There is always a balance as to how much fluid you drink before a race and the timing as you don’t want to have to visit the loo mid race. I hadn’t got it right this time. Something to work on.
• I need to improve my technique in the sled pull and the wall balls.
• My PT has suggested that I get my running gait assessed. Running with the correct form will make me faster even in the absence of improved fitness.
• I may have to accept that my V02 max may not improve and that the best I can achieve is to maintain what I’ve already got.

Hyrox is a bit like childbirth. You soon forget the pain and before you know it you’ve signed up for the next one. Three days after crossing the finish line I’d signed up to compete as a double with a gym friend. And I intend to do another solo Hyrox in November 2024 when I’ll be in the 65-69 age category.

No surrender.