It’s a race that requires a mesmerizing mix of strength and endurance; one that pushes the fittest of the fit to the edge of what they think is possible.HYROX is a functional fitness race which involves an eight-kilometer run interspersed with eight workout stations. Each station requires participants to perform a different exercise – SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmer’s carry, sandbag lunges and the dreaded wall balls.
After she crossed the finish line, cementing her first world title, Jacoby fell to the floor in an equal measure of exhaustion and jubilation, where she was greeted by her nine-year-old daughter. Despite somewhat stumbling upon HYROX, Jacoby had unknowingly been preparing for the sport for years. “My diet is very boring,” she laughs. “It’s a lot of chicken and rice. It’s kind of mundane, but that’s kind of the life of an athlete. It’s repetitive.”
Jacoby says the sense of community is another reason she dedicates her life to HYROX and says she finds inspiration from all corners of the sport – notably some of the other mothers who balance training with raising a family. Duff had always kept herself fit – she was a good rower during her youth and stepped up her fitness routine during the Covid lockdowns. But after agreeing to compete at her first HYROX event, Duff started reading up about the race and quickly realized she was in for a tough day.
“It’s incredibly important to keep mobile and strong as you get older because, if you don’t, the rate at which you deteriorate increases,” she says, explaining the “why” behind her participation.The 70-year-old athlete from England is a HYROX world champion in her age group Fürste says the concept took a while for people to understand and the business was badly hampered by Covid, which forced the cancelation of races around the world.
Earlier this year, anti-doping measures were brought into the single and doubles rulebooks, meaning HYROX athletes are now held to the standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency . “You won’t be seeing me going away until then,” says Jacoby when asked about the sport’s progression towards Olympic status.Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95 per cent of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico's Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake.A B.C.