Until arrival at the Excel Centre, it hadn’t really dawned on me what was about to come. Like many, I am one of the plentiful fishes in a deep blue sea of gym junkies, that continue to train relentlessly, aiming to lift heavier, aiming to run quicker, aiming to look leaner and then one day you ask yourself, what’s it all for? For me its personal accomplishment, knowing that after all the excuses and the mental battles that plague you at night, ‘should I have worked out today? Should I get up at 4 to fit a session in? Should I trade my lunch break for a session tomorrow?’ That eventually, it’s comes down to your genetic makeup, that something in the blood, in your cognitive set-up, that whilst for some its says ‘stay in bed, ill try again tomorrow,’ and yet for others it says, ‘go train today, go reach your goals, achieve something today.’
Mostly people can’t relate to us gym junkies, we are a rare but magnificent breed. And unless you find yourself standing over a loaded barbell at 5:00am, or dragging yourself out of bed when it’s still dark to hit the road and rack up your weekly mileage, or even fitting in a late-night gym sesh, because your office hours just keep getting longer and longer, well you can’t really comment, nor even relate to it. Most, are still buried in bed under a blanket of excuses, ‘I’ll start tomorrow,’ ‘I didn’t get much sleep,’ ‘I’m just not feeling up to it.’ Of course being a self-confessed gym junkie it’s not a complete bed of roses, it’s a little relentless, addictive and the constant longing to be stronger, quicker, will have you at night obsessing over how best to clean and press that barbell, or how to deadlift that extra 5kg. Yep, at times it’s a niggling obsession, like one’s fasciation for cigarettes or the desirable longing to binge, binge, binge on heavenly chocolate, no matter how hard you try to squish it, the addiction somehow boils over. Of course, the love for working out, no matter what time, where and when has people pondering, this girl moans she doesn’t sleep, has two babies under two and never puts her feet up. Why? Is she cray cray? The Instagram haters and the self-righteous critics say, ‘you’re mad girl, what’s wrong with you, who trains at 5am after getting no sleep? My answer to this is, why do you care? I got my shit together over here, just look after yours.
16months ago, I gave birth to identical twin boys. It’s one of those moments in life, where whilst consumed by feelings of euphoria, it has to be said, that at times, it feels like your house is burning down around you. Life yesterday was about me; life today is about keeping two little boys alive and safe. So, the following 16months transpired into hellish feeding schedules, a Covid restrained life and what’s more, the inability to be able to train when and how I wanted. Suffering from the aftermath of a C-section, it dawned on me, the once Burpee Queen, was now a sofa hugging, baby feeding robot. But, lets fast forward again 16months, a proud accomplished mother of two beautiful boys and suddenly I find myself standing at the Excel Centre, partner in toe jacked by adrenaline and about to embark on 90minutes of pain. For those who are not familiar with the Hyrox event, it’s a concoction of various fitness tools that deem to push you to the edge of self-destruction. Available to compete in a relay team of four, doubles or singularly, it reaches out to just about anyone who finds themselves longing to stand in the face of competition.
Our first hurdle when face to face with Hyrox is preparation, of course competition is not just about the race but the training, the build-up, the pacing, what to eat, what not to eat, what trainers to wear, should I go shorts or leggings, crop top or vest top ? Of course, when it comes to it, how many grams of protein you measured out that morning becomes somewhat irrelevant, because the reality is, no amount of protein or hand-picked selected co-rd gym outfit is going to save you on the day, this is about sheer will, determination and a bitter fight to reach the finish line.
Hyrox is a competition based around endurance and for me, its mostly about the running. The method of torture goes like this;
1km Run
1000m Ski-erg
1km Run
2 x 25m sled push (75kg + Sled)
1km Run
2 x 25 sled pull (50kg + Sled)
1km Run
80m Burpee Broad Jump
1km Run
1000m Row
1km Run
200m Kettle Bells Farmers Carry (2 x16kg)
1km Run
100m Sandbag Lunges (10kg)
1km run
75 x Wall Ball (4kg)
The battle commenced, Zoe and I got off to a good start, tearing into our first run, of course this is not a battle of a 100m race, this is not by any means a sprint, nor a marathon, its gaged somewhere in a spectrum that sits between, that whilst words of wisdom from fellow team mates say, ‘take the first half easy, push hard on the second if there is still fuel in the tank,’ your head actually says, ‘screw that, Ill beast it from the beginning and hope for the best.’ And that’s exactly what we did.
Lucky for us we had some fans on the side line and in all honestly when running with the devil on your shoulder, whispering sweet nothings into your ear, ‘give up now and it will all be over, you’ll never make it to the finish line, you’re running at a snail’s pace, what’s wrong with you?! Well, a familiar face chanting your name at the turn of the next corner will encourage you to push into the next realm, a lot of hard work, sweat and tears bought you here, finish it!
We had conquered the Ski-Erg, then came the sled, agreeably the most daunting of all tasks, nether one of us had spent much time practising such a method of torture. Fortunately, we pulled and pushed that dam sled so fast, flames lit from the floor and despite our hearts beating out of our chests, the lactic acid crippling our bodies, we somehow pushed into the next run and continued in true Hyrox style. Following this came the burpees and as I claim myself to be the Burpee Queen, well I Burpeed my way out of that one pretty impressively.
Then came the row. We split the row Zoe completed the first half and I the second. For anyone planning on taking on the Hyrox, it’s advisable to work out the logistics of who goes first, second and how you plan on splitting the exercises. What became apparent, is the person to go second on the exercises, would suffer at the hands of pure lactic acid seizure and whilst your legs are screaming for mercy, you are then required to run at the pace of your team mate whose just been resting for merely a minute, don’t be fooled however, that minute feels like ecstasy. Note; be sure not to finish second every time, or risk complete cardiac arrest (jokes, nether the less, take my advice). Somehow my legs made it out of the death zone and caught Zoe heel to toe once more. Then the Farmers Walk came, followed by the lunges. Between all this, don’t forget you are required to run two laps of the arena and as the comp continued the track became cluttered with exhausted athletes, some hugging the inside lane in a desperate attempt to run a little less, whilst others were forced to take them on the outside hoping that somehow the finish line would come quicker.
As the competition for us, was drawing to an end, my mind wondered from the pain and pure exhaustion of it all and focused on what it meant to be crossing the finish line. Whilst others only recognise marathons, lifting and televised sports as fitness endeavours, for the rest of us, the performing gym junkies, we know all too well, what it takes to step into an arena and put on a performance that the next day will have us thinking, ‘did I actually just do that? We are not all built to run marathons, nor to have the world record for the heaviest deadlift, neither to live and breath all things CrossFit. Some of us just like to feel fit, to be fit and to embrace our physical accomplishments in the face of competition. As I said before Hyrox is a combination of many things, a concoction of strength, cardiovascular endurance, speed, core strength, determination and the courage to take your fitness to the next level. As like any event, it requires training, commitment and on the day, the ability to hit the ‘Beast Mode’ button. For many self-confessed fitness fanatics, it’s all about the ‘gram,’ posing for your fans in a skimpy gym outfit and claiming you’ve just beasted it for all your aspiring followers. This is not about the gram, this is real and this is what all the hours of training, whilst juggling work and mum life, squeezing in workouts around unforgiving hours at work is all about. Some say they don’t have time, they are too tired, what’s the point? I say to you this, find the gym junkie inside of you, focus on becoming stronger, fitter and perhaps next year you’ll find yourself on the start line, about to embark in Hyrox 2023!
riacherry 