Anyone else doing this over the next few days? I've been training pretty consistently the last several months, so I'm excited to see how Saturday goes. Any tips or advice for a first-timer?

Someone told me recently what these were all about and I was like... why? Why would someone want to do this? I feel similarly to marathons and other ultra endurance activities too though.

I did open solo in Dallas in November and I'm doing doubles on Sunday afternoon this weekend.

-Hopefully you have identified what events will be your strengths and weaknesses and plan accordingly. Just because it's a strength, stay under control. For example, sleds are my strength, but I went too hard on push and actually ended up with my slowest run afterwards. Yes, I was in the top 10% of sled push times, but probably should have paced better.
-Don't go out hot on the 1st couple runs, it's a long race.
-Don't walk in the Rox zone if you can help it, keep jogging.
-I take a gel on the run into the row.
-Get there early to just walk around and see the layout. There will be a lot of energy in the room so don't get caught up in it. Get warmed up, but nothing more than your usual. There will be dudes overdoing it in the warmup area, but don't get caught up in it. The adrenaline of the tunnel was the first real sense of competition I've felt in years. That's the main reason I'm going back.
-Wall Balls are terrible and I hated my life. Don't to failure, pace it out in comfortable sets.
-Make sure you keep track of your laps, I think this is a 3 lap setup, they are typically 2.

Good luck and have fun, it's going to suck though.

cadetjay02 said:

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Good luck and have fun, it's going to suck though.

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Type 2 fun is the best kind of fun.

Well that was a lot of fun! The atmosphere and energy is incredible, and reminded me when I was first getting into triathlon 20 years ago while it was fun and new to me.

I was the third wave start on Saturday morning, so not too many people out on the floor when I started, which was nice. I was a little concerned with how crowded it would get on the run course, but I was able to run unimpeded each lap, so that was nice. Overall, I met or exceeded my time expectations for six of the eight stations. I left time on the table in lunges (definitely need to work on quad strength) and had like 11 or 12 no reps on the wallballs because 1) I was fatigued and 2) the ball got sweaty and would slip out of my hands and miss the target by an inch or two. That was a bit frustrating and caused me probably 25 seconds.

But overall no complaints from me at all. I beat my stretch goal time by over 3 minutes and placed pretty high. While I can't keep the Hyrox-specific training focus year round, I already have the bug to do another one (Dallas or Houston '27) and see if I can shave a minute or two off my time. It's a very well-organized and quality race, so for anyone potentially interested in doing one, I strongly encourage it!

Good job, I'm glad you enjoyed it and went well. This was a much more efficient layout than Dallas was. Other than dealing with all the terrible Houston drivers it was a good day.

Today was my 1st doubles and I did it with my son. It sucked but we beat our goal time and had a good bonding experience. Solo is definitely harder, but the ability to go faster in doubles adds a different challenge.

After the NYC half two weeks ago and HYROX today I'm definitely going to take some time to recover. I'm thinking about doing HYROX in Tampa and Dallas in the fall.