Maui Gym Hosts Hyrox-Style Fundraiser Marking Katie Folio’s First Year Cancer-Free

• Katie Folio, a Maui paddler and mother of two, is marking one year cancer-free after a breast cancer diagnosis in May 2025.
• Level Up Maui, owned by Jackie Cox, set a public Hyrox-style challenge for the Sunday after the story ran, built around eight 1-kilometer runs.
• Part of the proceeds go to Kokua 4 a Cause, a Maui Health Foundation program that helps uninsured and underinsured Maui women pay for mammograms and biopsies.

A Year After Diagnosis, a Maui Gym Turns Recovery Into a Public Workout

Katie Folio did not stop training when the doctors found her cancer. A paddler and a mother of two on Maui, Folio learned in May 2025 that she had breast cancer, a diagnosis she called a shock, with no family history of the disease. She kept exercising through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, adjusting what she could do from week to week. By her own account the workouts were not pretty, and she leaned on a lot of people to keep them going.

This October she reaches a milestone: one year cancer-free. Jackie Cox, who owns Level Up Maui, decided the date deserved more than a card. Cox built a public fitness event around Folio’s recovery, a local take on Hyrox that anyone on the island could sign up for. Hawaii News Now reporter Chelsea Davis covered the plan on October 15, and the report placed the event on the coming Sunday, which falls on October 18. The report did not include a start time, an address or a registration fee, and no results had been published when this article was written.

The event is a useful example of how Hyrox has spread beyond the big arena races. Hyrox is a branded fitness race with a fixed format, and its name now appears on gym schedules across the United States. Gyms borrow the structure to run their own versions, often as a fundraiser, a community day or a first step for members who are not ready to enter a ticketed race in a convention center. Folio’s story gives this one a clear purpose.

What a Hyrox-Style Challenge Asks of Participants

An official Hyrox race has a simple skeleton. Athletes run one kilometer, complete a workout station, run another kilometer, and repeat until they have done eight of each. The eight stations in the standard format, in order, are:

• 1,000 meters on the SkiErg
• 50 meters of sled push
• 50 meters of sled pull
• 80 meters of burpee broad jumps
• 1,000 meters on the rowing machine
• 200 meters of farmers carry
• 100 meters of sandbag lunges
• 100 wall ball throws

Level Up Maui described its event as a version of Hyrox built from a series of exercise sets separated by eight 1-kilometer runs. That means eight kilometers of running before anyone touches a station, which makes the run the real test for most newcomers. The report did not list the specific stations or distances Level Up chose, so participants should expect the gym’s own adaptation rather than an exact copy of the official race.

Cox told the station that the challenge tests strength and endurance together. That pairing explains why the format attracts people from several backgrounds: runners who want to learn to carry a load, lifters who want to find out how they hold up on a long run, and paddlers like Folio who already live somewhere in between. Anyone could join, and the gym handled sign-ups through an online form linked in the news report. The report listed no gym membership requirement.

Where the Money Goes: Kokua 4 a Cause

Part of the proceeds from the day go to Kokua 4 a Cause, a Maui Health Foundation program. Hawaii News Now said the program helps cover the cost of mammograms and biopsies for women on Maui who are uninsured or underinsured. The report did not say what share of the proceeds goes to the program or set a fundraising target, so the final figure is unknown for now.

The program has run from 2005 onward, according to its fundraising page, and it keeps the money on the island. The page says procedures are done at Maui Memorial Medical Center and that every $200 raised pays for one mammogram. A 2019 Maui Family Magazine article put the program’s total at more than $354,000 in cancer screenings for over 1,000 Maui women at that point. The program’s own campaign page reported that requests for help climbed from 70 women in 2018 to 119 in 2020. Those figures are several years old, but they show the scale: small, local donations covering individual procedures for neighbors.

For the gym, that scale is a good fit. A small-island event with a few dozen participants can fund several screenings, and the people raising the money can name the neighbors they are helping. The Maui Health Foundation’s chief development officer, Melinda Sweany, said in 2019 that every donation stays on the island, a line that still anchors the campaign’s pitch.

Why Gyms Keep Hosting Events Like This

Gym-hosted Hyrox events are showing up in small and midsize markets across the country. In Dayton, Ohio, WKEF reported in April that Freedom Pointe CrossFit was the first gym in its area to offer Hyrox training and host an event, aimed at both experienced athletes and beginners. In Boston, the official Hyrox race filled the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from October 8 to 11. The format works at both ends of the scale.

For Maui residents, the local version carries an extra advantage. A mainland race means booking a flight, a hotel and time away from family, and the entry fee is only part of the bill. A gym event on the island removes most of that cost. A newcomer can walk in, run the kilometers at a pace they choose and finish among neighbors who know why the day exists.

Cox’s choice also reflects a pattern in community fitness. Events with a cause attached tend to draw people who do not think of themselves as athletes, including the friends and relatives of the person being honored. They show up for Folio, and some of them find out they can complete eight kilometers of running with a few hard stations in between.

What Newcomers Can Take From Folio’s Story

Folio’s own advice from the report was short: you need to pay attention to your body. She said it as a cancer survivor urging awareness, and it doubles as training advice for anyone signing up for a first Hyrox-style event. Know your pace on the run, ask the organizers what each station involves, and scale the work to what you can do that day.

If you live near a gym that hosts a similar challenge, check its social channels and sign-up forms the week of the event. Ask whether there are relay or partner options, whether the stations scale for different fitness levels, and where the proceeds go. Many gyms welcome first-timers and will walk you through each station before the clock starts.

Folio spent a hard year proving that movement can continue through treatment, in whatever form the body allows. On Sunday, a room full of Maui neighbors had the chance to run eight kilometers in her honor and put money toward the screenings that catch the disease early. When the gym posts its results and fundraising total, the event will show how far one survivor’s anniversary can carry a community.