59:21 and The Beauty of Hyrox
“What is Hydrox?”
That’s what everyone asked me one year ago when I race my first race.
“That’s an old precursor to the Oreo that doesn’t exist,” I would say jokingly to everyone who texted me about it, knowingly it was probably auto-corrected.
I raced my fourth race — this time a doubles race — on Saturday, and finished in 59:21. 4th in our age group (16-29 — Matt is 29, and I’m 31) and 14th overall.
To put into perspective how wild that is, 260 men ran in the same division as us. Out of 130 groups, we were 14th. And out of 41 groups aged 16-29, we were 4th.
14,000 racers raced this weekend, and we were in the top 7th percentile of all finishers.
A year ago, I had no idea I’d become as obsessed with this sport.
But what I did see was more and more people picking up interest in it, which is a huge W for the fitness world.
Before I go on…
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your health data? Lab results, prescriptions or recent diagnoses? Not sure you know what your doctor just said at your physical?
Thrive25 helped me organize everything in one place and actually understand my lab results.
It’s curated a a platform with the help of top health experts to give me quick wins to achieve optimal health, not just “good enough” health.
Best of all? Thrive25 is super affordable and secure. Highly recommend checking it out 👉
Use my link to get an early access discount FOREVER and take real control of your health.
Hyrox, as I’ve written before, brands itself as “the race for everybody.”
Truly, I had doubts about that at first.
The eight-station, 8 kilometer beast of a race seemed like it didn’t really lend itself to being a friendly challenge to the everyday gym goer.
But with the rise in interest, everyday gyms stepped up.
Hyrox expanded its affiliate partnerships over the past year to grow its brand awareness with local gyms, host “Hyrox fitness tests,” and put the race on people’s radar around the U.S.
Clearly, that effort worked.
When I raced in Dallas in November, 9,000 racers was Hyrox’s largest single-day North American event.
Since then, they’ve shattered that record a few times over.
Now, everyone who’s anyone wants to try a Hyrox, similar to a marathon, “just to say they did it.”
But Hyrox is far more accessible, and actually has an aspect of repeatability to it.
It’s not like a marathon in that you need 6 months of training. People got by this weekend with less.
Sure, they might’ve gotten their asses kicked, but they had a hell of a time during it, and they’re not nearly as sore as they might be had they ran a marathon.
Ok, I don’t have the stats to back that.
But Hyrox (on the longer side) maxes out around two and a half hours, where amateur marathoners can take upwards of five or six.
What Hyrox has is a repeatable structure, allowing for athletes (yes, if you compete in one, you can call yourself that) to find tangible things to improve upon after each competition.
It also allows those who want to feel like athletes again a window into a new sport, where elitism hasn’t yet run rampant like it has in running.
Most races really feel like very judgment free zones. But it’s Hyrox where I see people who’ve already finished cheering on those behind them, clapping people through the finish line and taking people with strangers.
They achieved a level of community that rivals only Crossfit, and even Crossfit can’t compare because of their massive injury problem.
There aren’t many things I’ve ever come in first place in.
Or second. Or Third.
Or Top Ten.
Many high school and college athletes will never get to taste what that feeling of being in the upper echelon feels like because of their naturally gifted, more talented counterparts and teammates.
But Hyrox puts a dent in the idea that athleticism is purely genetic.
Hyrox allows for the hard workers, the suffer-by-grit athletes, and the ones who simply want it to flourish.
I’ve seen many of the above finish surprisingly high in their heats and score tickets to Hyrox World Championships.
At this race, and throughout the season, the sport allows for anyone to qualify for the sport’s biggest stage, a level of unpredictability rivaled only by NCAA’s March Madness.
A skinny, scrappy guy like Dylan Scott can dominate the playing field, but so can a bulky, athletic one like Hunter McIntyre.
This sport is changing the way people view fitness. Some people are content going to the gym every day and seeing small bits of incremental progress in how their body changes.
Others need more fuel.
Some people need to see another number, another metric other than just their weight, to feel like something positive is happening.
Hyrox can be that number, that motivator, for a larger swath of people to completely change the trajectory of their health.