Well it seems like a life time ago now that we were heading off to London to compete in our first ever Hyrox event at the London Excel Centre. The training had gone ok and I'd loved joining H3 Gym in Nottingham for their weekly Hyrox training. We travelled down on the Friday which we didnt really need to do but we had booked our hotel rooms well in advance. WE only found out very close to the actual event day that we weren't setting off until 4.50pm. From an event point of view this is a really unusual time to be setting off, most running events start early in the morning so you are done and dusted by midday.
Our hotel was super close to the Excel center. On the Saturday morning we walked down to the Victoria Dock Park Run to support. Its still my course PB as its super flat so I definitely had itchy feet not running it. Steve knocked it out the park with a PR PB. Must be the super flat course that makes it a quick one!
After PR we headed over the EXcel to have a look around and watch some of the racing. As you enter the arena you can feel the energy. The running track is around the outside of the hall with all the 8 stations laid out in the middle. On entering you cross the running track as the athletes are competing. The atmosphere is electric!! Music fills the hall and the whole place is slick with Hyrox colouring and merchandise. It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed with nerves and adrenaline even just stepping into the arena. We only spent an hour or so watching some of the athletes then headed back to the hotel for lunch. At 3pm ish it still felt like forever until we would be competing so I tried to have a little nanna nap but to no avail. I was too excited. We finally headed over and the nerves really kicked in. It even makes my tummy flip thinking about it now. I was once a competitive rower and desperately miss the buzz of competing. Sitting on the start line, eyes forward, blade locked and the other crews around you. Channelling those nerves into those first few fast strokes as the race begins. So for me, this took me back to those days.
There was a warm up area that seemed to be filled with a lot of very fit looking women. There were kit from each of the stations that you could practice and warm up with. I nervously sat on the ergo (rower) and tried to disperse some of the mounting nerves. I faffed about a bit doing some dynamic exercises but in all honesty it wasn’t my finest warm up.
Finally our wave time came. Another very fit young lady took us through some mobility exercises and then we were off!!! There were probably about 30 in our wave. I was really conscious of not going off too quickly so I tried to settle into my first 1 km run. The running track is always busy as there are 8x1km run so each wave are out at some point on the track (8 times) There is a big screen that shows you which lap you are on out of the 2 and a half and what station you have to do next. My first run split was 4.33 and then I was into the 1000m ski erg. I was the first athlete in to this discipline so I new I was doing ok so far but its a long way from there!! In all the hyrox women I was 12th in the ski erg. Next was the sled push then pull. The push was brutal. We’d been training on a sort of fake grass type surface that the sled glided along. The carpet at the excel was very unforgiving. If you got too high the sled dug into it. The pull was ok and is just one that you have to dig in and get into a rhythm with the rope.
Runs 2 and 3 were 4.31 and 4.47 then going into run 4 I new burpees were next so I thought I’d better ease back a bit so this one was 4.59. I knew I was pretty rubbish at burpee broad jumps and that showed on the results!! I was 232nd for this station and took a pathetic 6 MINUTES 36 SECONDS!!! To heave my lanky butt over the finish line.
(Me praying to the burpee god to let it be over!!!)
Weirdly my run after was 4.56 so I clearly didn’t try hard enough. I think the burpees are definitely the mentally toughest station. The 1000m row was a bit slower than I would have liked at 4.41 but I was 18th overall out of all the women athletes (of all ages!!). Should have been quicker though but there is always the niggling voice in your head saying ‘don’t blow up now!!’ Run 6 was 4.57 then into the farmers carry with 2 x 16 kg kettlebells. I flew round this in 1.49 and was 13th overall.
Run 7 was 4.52 then into the sandbag lunges with a 10kg bag. I thought I would be ok at here but really struggled and it took way longer than I would have liked, 4.27 and a measly 146th overall. I think this one starts ok then the burn just hits in so I definitely underestimated this station.
My last run shows my legs were battered as it took me 5.43 to complete. There was also that little voice again saying ‘save something for the 75 wall balls!’ The wall balls are another one that bite. It took me 3.37 and I lost my rhythm on these but finally after what seemed forever I dropped the ball and headed for the finish line. Total Time 1hour 18 mins and 18 secs, 2nd in my age group and a qualifying place at the world champs in Las Vegas. I spent 6 mins in the Rox zone which is the transition area, my total 8km run time was 39.14 and thankfully I had incurred no time penalties.
I knew I had done reasonably well but was super surprised to be announced as 2nd place in the 45-49 age group.
My friend also smashed it out the park and came in 2 nd in her age group so we were pretty chuffed all round.
It was such a fantastic event and I really was disappointed when it was all over. There is such a buzz around Hyrox at the moment and the next season is rapidly approaching. We’ve both signed up for Birmingham in October and are slowly building our fitness back up again. I’ll be joining H3 gym again as it was great being part of the team training for Hyrox. I’ve lost a bit of momentum recently after picking up a little Achilles niggle but that’s almost gone now so I’m hoping to get back some of the focus I had before London.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Hyrox there’s a whole podcast dedicated to it. Emma and I were lucky enough to be interviewed by Ian who hosts it. He talked to us pre London then fought up with us after the event. It’s great listening back to it and we had great fun recording it. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6bBQwoz4N9xSnzk9tPpav9?si=
I’ll be keeping you updated with my road to Birmingham in October and let’s hope training goes well and I can smash a few minutes off my time. Sub 1 hour 15 would do nicely…….just got to nail those broad jump burpees 🤢
