OCD FOR OCR

As winter casts its pall over the Northeastern US, my obstacle course racing season has ground to a close. The last few months have been ones of success and breakthroughs for me, including my first two podium finishes. My training has been rewarding and I have been feeling healthier than I have felt in a long time. To be honest, I really didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to competing just yet, but traveling to Florida, the Carolinas or California, for a race weekend in a warmer climate was not a viable option due to time and financial constraints.

Luckily for me and many other avid OCR athletes, HYROX has emerged in North America, with a great off-season alternative. While not an obstacle race per se, the German-based company has put together an athletic event that seems to give much of the same ethos of the sport we love and test our fitness much the same way. I only learned about them about a month or two ago and now I am glad I did. Over 1,000 athletes, converged upon Pier 94 on the upper West Side of Manhattan for divisions that included individual men, women and pairs teams, comprising same sex divisions as well as the mixed pairs division which Lorraine Ensana and I teamed up for this time.

• Registration and Festival:

Registration was a piece of cake. We presented our ID’s, they looked up our team and we had our timing chips and a coupon for our finisher shirts (which were available in a Puma merchandise area just across the way). The apparel selection had everything you would expect or hope for, and it came in handy as Lorraine realized on our subway trip from Staten Island, that she had forgotten to pack workout clothes. With a major supplier like Puma involved, you could be sure the finisher shirts were of a very satisfactory quality.

There also was a pretty substantial number of vendors, ranging from familiar ones, like CLIF Builder Bar to FitAid to Refix recovery beverage (a Spanish company offering a beverage comprised in part of sea water), which was provided immediately at the finish line and really hit the spot after over an hour of hard effort).

• Pre-Race Athlete Briefing:

In addition, to being assigned a heat time, to report to, we were also given a time to report to for the “athlete briefing”, which was about 40-minutes before our start. In the athlete briefing, a HYROX official led a slide show presentation that spelled out the rules and movement standards in a clear and concise fashion, even more so than the online athlete guide PDF and videos, we had access to before competition day.

• Pre-Race MC:

Once we entered the start corral, we were greeted by Kevin Donoghue, who is a familiar sight for me in many a start corrals, but usually, as a fellow athlete and some stiff competition in my own age group. However, today he was presiding over sending us off. Kevin did a great job interacting with the crowd, toeing the line, asking people where they were from, if they were excited to do HYROX for the first time, etc. Since he immediately recognized Lorraine, when we emerged to race, he reacted as if a rock star had shown up and quite frankly, I don’t disagree in a sense.

• The Course:

A HYROX competition, consisted of a workout, in 8-rounds of a 1-km (0.6 mile) run, followed by a specific exercise that varied from one round to the next. The workout(s) have been the same from one venue to the next, so that records are kept and participants can compare their performance, not only to those they competed against that day, but to others who have done a previous HYROX , elsewhere that season or even their own previous results to see if they improved.

I am not sure if the workout(s) will be changed in future seasons (I would prefer to see changes, but would not hesitate to come back to try again at the same challenges we were presented with). In pairs competition, both athletes must start and finish the entire running portion together, finishing each 1-km run at the same time, but the non-running exercises could be divided up, however strategy, discretion and the individual athletes’ abilities dictated. All eight stations, can be seen here, with video tutorials and are similar to what one might do at any CrossFit or functional fitness workout program, but at the same time, not so technical that any one discipline is overly favored over another (no Olympic lifting, no obstacles, etc).

My only two qualms with the event were minor and didn’t really detract from my experience much. One, the carpet on the sled push, tended to bunch up in places and make the sled a little harder to budge. I was warned about it by others who competed prior to us, so it wasn’t all that off putting. It’s just that I would swap to an artificial turf, if I were in charge. Certainly, not a deal-breaker, especially knowing all the competitors had to contend with it. The other issue, I found was that HYROX had denoted a “slow” lane and “fast” lane on the running track, yet many times, I found us bottle-necked or having to pass on the right. I’m not sure what HYROX can do to enforce better lane discipline, but it is what it is. Lorraine noticed it as well, but pointed out that it made for a rest so we could push harder in the open spaces. 

The stations, coupled with the running, were definitely a challenge and I saw many athletes walking laps after one or two rounds. While Lorraine and I kept a steady pace through and through, the legs felt notably heavier each time we finished a round and set off for the next round’s running. All in all, I found the overall event challenging, but not overly technical, such that any person interested in testing their fitness could confidently give it a try, regardless of the type of gym they work out in or regardless of their athletic background. That being said, the top podiums in each category / age group seemed to be familiar faces, from the OCR scene and it is a true testament to the high level of overall fitness OCR cultivates in its devotees and to see so much OCR domination at a non-OCR event.

• The Bling:

No medals for finishers or podium winners. Each participant got a tech t-shirt that is pretty comfortable for being that kind of material. I have always liked Puma products even back in my soccer playing days and this was no exception. Lorraine and I won our age group for mixed pairs so we also each received a Puma long sleeve shirts with “winner” emblazoned across the back, a case of the Refix drink. We also got to keep our sign from the podium, which has found a new home on Staten Island 🙂

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

As soon as I found out about this event, I knew it was something, Lorraine and I just had to do. Being both a Cross-fitter and OCR athlete, it seems like the perfect middle ground between the two and would play to our strengths. I wasn’t sure how well organized it would be as a new event, but apart from a few small hiccups you would expect to see when something is brand new, it really ran like a well-oiled machine. When we were finished, we felt like we couldn’t have possibly done another movement or run another meter, which is exactly how I want to feel after any time I race or compete. All week, my friends who competed in HYROX , have done nothing, but speak glowingly of their experiences as well.

HYROX is definitely a winner and as I write this there is buzz about a certain major OCR player rolling out their own version of what we experienced this prior weekend. I am sure I will give them a shot but I have a feeling that HYROX is a whole new type of event that will stand on its own and will not be easily duplicated. Lorraine and I, are giving the event 4.9 out of 5 stars and we are confident the next one could be a perfect 5!

Article Written by: Brian Kellogg, OCR Aficionado and Lorraine Ensana.