Earlier this month, friends Dara Toews of Niverville and Vanessa Petsch of Ste. Anne competed together at the HYROX fitness race held in Toronto.
Competing in the ladies’ open doubles, the pair tied another team for 43rd place out of 1536 entries.
HYROX
HYROX is a running and functional fitness race with competitions held all year long all over the globe.
Short for hybrid rockstar, the first HYROX event took place in Germany in 2017. It has since established itself as the fastest growing fitness sport in the world.
The Toronto event alone drew in 16,000 racers throughout all categories, along with an additional 17,000 spectators.
“It’s fun because you get a lot of people that like to run, but also like to work out,” says Toews. “So, this is a good combination of both, and you have to be [good at both] If you want to get a competitive time.”
The competition
The HYROX fitness race contains interval challenges. Competitors run a kilometer and then complete a timed workout at a workout station. By the end, they’ve completed eight kilometers of running mixed with eight different workout sessions.
HYROX workouts include SkiErg, sled push and pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls.
The training equipment needed, Toews says, is available at many local gyms.
Hooked on HYROX
Toews has been interested in weights and weight training since she was a teenager. She picked up running about three years ago, in her late twenties.
It wasn’t until March of this year that she entered her first HYROX race, together with her brother in the mixed doubles category.
New to the competition, Toews says they ended up doing more than the necessary number of reps at one station, which cost them some valuable time.
“We [finished in] an hour and 13 minutes,” says Toews. “So, we still did really well but we did too much of one station because, if you don’t do enough, you will be penalized. The adrenaline just got to us, so our time wasn’t what we were hoping for.”
Two months later, Toews was back at it in the ladies open singles in Ottawa where she competed solo. Her husband and one-year-old son accompanied her to the competition.
“I did just under an hour and 24 minutes. But the baby kept me up all night for a couple of nights before, so I was very tired when I started. I actually think that was my easiest race because I was doing it by myself, so I could just pace myself.”
Following their doubles competition in Toronto, Toews and Plesch wasted no time signing up for another HYDROX happening in Phoenix, Arizona.
One has to be on the ball, Toews says, because the tickets sell out fast.
Turning it into a family affair
In December of this year, Toews is entered for her second time in the solo category, this one in Anaheim, California.
Her husband and four kids will accompany her this time, making a family vacation out of the adventure.
Anaheim will also be the location where Toews’ eight-year-old daughter competes for the first time in the HYROX Young Stars.
“She thought it looked like fun. She really likes the sleds, especially a sled push. She’s done a 200-pound sled push before. She was seven.”
Working out with the kids
Toews is a regular at Prairie Roots Fitness in Niverville. It’s a smaller, more personal kind of gym, she says, where it’s okay to bring the kids along.
When you’re Toews, taking kids to the gym is a win/win. She is not as restricted in her workout time, and the kids get to climb on the equipment, making fitness a normal family activity.
“I always bring my kids to the gym with me. I almost never work out without at least one child there. Vanessa and I, training, had seven kids with us at the gym at one point.”
Friends who share much in common
Toews and Petsch began meeting at runs in communities around the southeast. Both young moms, they had much in common, including the pace they keep during a run.
As a duo in a competition like HYROX, Toews says they complement each other nicely.
“There’s a few things that Vanessa and I are very even on. I’m a lot quicker on the SkiErg than her. But she’s better on the rower than I am.”
For a warmup and cool down at their Toronto competition, the pair decided to walk the13 kilometers from their hotel room to the event venue and back, just because they could.
