Charlotte Gym Owner Turns Halloween Weekend Into a Two-Person Hyrox-Style Race Open to Everyone

• Sweat Method, a Charlotte gym in the Lower South End, is opening its two-person RelayWRK race to the public on Oct. 30 and 31.
• Partners trade off across nine movements on a ski machine, a rower and a bike, all indoors with no running.
• Entry costs $20 per person on Friday and $30 on Saturday, and the gym will match solo sign-ups with a partner.

A Members-Only Test Becomes a Neighborhood Race

Justin Gordon wanted his members to have something to train toward. As owner of Sweat Method, a locally owned gym in Charlotte’s Lower South End, he designed RelayWRK as a two-person, Hyrox-style race that measures both strength and endurance. The members liked it enough that Gordon decided to throw the doors open. The next edition runs Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, over Halloween weekend, and anyone in the Charlotte area can sign up, whether or not they belong to the gym.

The pitch is simple. Every movement in the race is a drill the gym’s regulars already practice. Nothing requires a new skill. Gordon describes the point of the event in one line: “The test is all nine together,” meaning the challenge comes from stringing the nine movements into one continuous effort with a partner, not from any single exercise. Axios Charlotte first reported the details on Oct. 23.

How a RelayWRK Race Works

Teams of two take turns. One partner works while the other rests, then they swap. The race holds nine movements split across three stations, and the mix leans toward strength, with roughly two-thirds of the work in strength movements and the remaining third in conditioning. The whole thing happens inside the studio. Nobody runs a lap or heads outside, which makes it a workable option for people who want a Hyrox-like challenge without the 8 kilometers of running that a full Hyrox race demands.

The three stations pair a cardio machine with two floor movements:

• Ski station: over-the-shoulder tosses, plank up-downs and the SkiErg.
• Rower station: stepovers, dumbbell sit-ups and the rowing machine.
• Bike station: surrender lunges, dumbbell snatches and the stationary bike.

A pair has to decide who takes which movement and when to hand off. A partner who rests too long wastes clock time, and a partner who burns out early leaves the team short on the last station. That tension is the draw of any relay format, and it is why a team of two friends with mismatched fitness levels can still post a respectable time.

Sprint on Friday, Endurance on Saturday

Sweat Method runs two versions of the race on consecutive days. Friday is the Sprint, with 20 reps per movement and shorter cardio distances. It offers no prizes. Racers are timed and judged, and the gym pitches the format as beginner-friendly, so a first-timer can find out how nine linked movements feel without chasing a podium. Start times on Friday are 6:00 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., which suits people coming straight from work.

Saturday is the Endurance race. Reps climb to 30 per movement and the cardio distances stretch out. Cash prizes go to winners in men’s, women’s and co-ed divisions. Four start times fill the day, at 9:00 a.m., 9:45 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.

Pricing and logistics follow a small-gym model:

• Cost: $20 per person for the Friday Sprint and $30 per person for the Saturday Endurance race.
• Field size: each race is capped at four teams of two.
• Partners: racers without a teammate get one assigned by the gym.
• Registration: through the Sweat Method app.
• Merchandise: event tees are sold at the race.

The four-team cap shapes the experience. At a full Hyrox weekend, racers move through arenas packed with hundreds of competitors and thousands of spectators. In Charlotte, a first-timer will be one of eight people on the floor at a time, in a room where the gym’s staff can see every rep. That scale takes some of the intimidation out of trying a race for the first time.

Why Hyrox-Style Races Keep Spreading

RelayWRK is one of a growing number of gym-built races borrowing the Hyrox idea of putting structured functional stations in front of everyday exercisers. Hyrox itself pairs eight 1-kilometer runs with eight stations, including a sled push, a sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, a farmers carry, sandbag lunges and 100 wall balls. The format began in Germany in 2017 and arrived in the United States in 2019.

US growth has been fast. RoxLyfe reported that American participation rose more than 300 percent year over year heading into the 2025-26 season, and Boston’s inaugural event in September 2025 drew more than 12,000 competitors. Coverage of this weekend’s Tampa debut cited Hyrox’s own projection of about 2 million competitors across 107 race weekends worldwide in the 2026-27 season. Trade outlet Athletech News noted on Oct. 23 that fitness concepts from hybrid swimming races in France to stair-climbing workouts in the United States are trying to copy the Hyrox model.

Official events sell out, require travel and can cost far more than a $20 entry. A local alternative gives newcomers a lower-stakes way to find out whether they like the pressure of a timed, judged effort. A person who finishes a Friday Sprint at Sweat Method and wants more has clear next steps: the Saturday Endurance format, a return trip in January, or a full Hyrox race such as the Nashville event scheduled for December.

What a First-Timer Can Expect

Anyone who has used a SkiErg, a rowing machine and a stationary bike has met every machine in the race. The dumbbell and bodyweight movements are common to most group classes: lunges, snatches, sit-ups and plank transitions. What changes is the pace. Nine movements back to back, with a partner waiting for the handoff, feels different from a casual workout, and a Sprint with 20 reps per movement lets a newcomer test that pace without committing to the longer Saturday version.

Gordon’s decision to supply partners removes the biggest barrier for people who do not have a training buddy. Signing up through the app also keeps the process simple for a gym member who has never entered a race. The Halloween date adds a festive edge, though the gym has not announced costume rules.

Sweat Method has already scheduled the next RelayWRK for Jan. 8 and 9, 2027. If this weekend’s turnout is strong, Charlotte could gain a recurring community race that grows from a members’ test into a regular fixture on the local calendar. For now, the cap of four teams per race means spots will go quickly, and anyone interested should check the Sweat Method app.