Racers and a Sukha Club Leader Explain What Hyrox’s Tampa Debut Feels Like

• Hyrox’s first Tampa race filled the Tampa Convention Center from Oct. 22 to 25, with organizers projecting between 15,000 and 18,700 athletes.
• Racers describe a contest against themselves, with crowds, judges and fellow athletes carrying people through the final stations.
• Sukha Club Tampa began teaching a Hyrox class in January and says the format makes adults feel like school athletes again.

One Kilometer on Legs That Just Pushed a Sled

Michaela Berriault stood in the middle of the Tampa Convention Center this weekend and described the hardest part of Hyrox in one sentence. After a heavy sled push, she still has to run a full kilometer on legs that feel like they belong to someone else. “You have to be an athlete on both sides,” she said. Her read on the sport matches what many racers in Tampa told local reporters: the event asks for strength and stamina in equal measure, and the mental side decides the tough stretches.

Hyrox held its first Tampa competition Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 22 to 25, at the downtown convention center on the Riverwalk. The Tampa Bay Sports Commission projected more than 15,000 athletes, while Fox 13 reported organizer expectations of about 18,700 athletes and more than 18,000 spectators. Fox 13 reporter Mark Wilson entered the race himself. Event figures put the combined turnout at roughly 10 percent of the convention center’s expected annual attendance.

What Racers Said on the Floor

Interviews published by Yahoo Sports from the Tampa weekend capture a field that ranges from first-timers to people chasing personal records. Matt Green said the crowd and the other athletes supply the energy that carries him through, and he noted that many racers spend the day competing against themselves. Brent Ward said the format works for people finishing their first race and for experienced racers who want to win. He called it a long, grueling day and liked that the course layout lets spectators follow the action and move between stations.

Adolfo Benabente said he and his wife were racing mixed doubles with personal records in mind, and that they do it for the love of it. Paola Benabente called the atmosphere a vibe, with the crowd, the judges and every other competitor cheering. Sara Damery of Hyrox gave the plainest definition of the sport: a running race with workout stations mixed in.

That description is accurate. A Hyrox race has eight 1-kilometer runs, and each one ends at a workout station. The stations come in a fixed order: 1,000 meters on the SkiErg, a 50-meter sled push, a 50-meter sled pull, 80 meters of burpee broad jumps, 1,000 meters on a rowing machine, a 200-meter farmers carry, 100 meters of sandbag lunges and 100 wall ball throws. The total running distance is 8 kilometers.

The Loads Racers Move

Loads depend on division, and newcomers often ask what they will carry. In the Open divisions, according to Red Bull’s Hyrox overview, the numbers look like this:

• Sled push: 102 kilograms for women and 152 kilograms for men, including the sled.
• Sled pull: 78 kilograms for women and 103 kilograms for men, including the sled.
• Farmers carry: two 16-kilogram kettlebells for women and two 24-kilogram kettlebells for men.
• Sandbag lunges: a 10-kilogram bag for women and a 20-kilogram bag for men.
• Wall balls: a 4-kilogram ball for women and a 6-kilogram ball for men, 100 reps each.

Doubles and relay racers use the same Open loads, mixed doubles teams use the Pro women’s loads, and Pro doubles teams use the Pro loads for each gender. Racers can enter individually, with a partner or on a relay team. The Tampa schedule also included adaptive divisions. Thursday’s racing ran from 8 a.m. to about 8:30 p.m. Friday featured the Pro men, Pro women and relays. Saturday covered the men’s and adaptive men’s races, mixed doubles and Pro doubles, and Sunday closed with the women’s, adaptive women’s and doubles races. Every finisher receives individual results with split times, and certain age groups can earn a spot at the Hyrox World Championships.

A Local Club That Started Teaching Hyrox in January

Nick Cheesman, director of programming at Sukha Club Tampa in North Hyde Park, watched the sport build a following inside his own building. The club began offering a Hyrox class in January, and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission quoted him saying the class quickly built a strong following. In his view, the format has softened the image of fitness competitions. He said it makes people feel like high school or college athletes again, part of a bigger community. Ticket demand reflects that pull. Cheesman compared the sales queue to a sold-out concert, with fans setting alarms to get in line.

Clubs like Sukha give newcomers a weekly entry point. Hyrox sells official training-club status to gyms, and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chattanooga, for one, offers its Hyrox classes free to members. For a newcomer in Tampa, a weekly class gives the chance to learn the stations, try the sled and rehearse the wall balls before paying for a race entry.

Why Tampa and Why Now

Jason Aughey, senior vice president of sports tourism at the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, said Hyrox wanted this market. Visit Tampa Bay and the commission began working with the organization in fall 2025 and finalized the agreement a few weeks before the race. Aughey expected a solid blend of local and out-of-town participants, and said visitors who arrive early or leave late add spending at hotels, restaurants and downtown businesses.

Dallas offers a point of comparison. The 2025 Dallas race drew roughly 17,000 participants and 30,000 spectators, and half of that crowd came from out of state. Hyrox projects about 2 million competitors across 107 race weekends worldwide in the 2026-27 season, up from the 650,000 or so athletes the sport counted worldwide by 2025, according to DW figures cited in Boston coverage.

For a curious reader in Florida, the Tampa weekend shows the entry points. A person can start with a gym class, race in doubles with a spouse or a friend, enter an age-group division, or watch from the Riverwalk entrance and decide later. Spectators were told to enter only through the Riverwalk side of the building, and racers had to bring identification to check in personally. Racers who want to try again have options close by, including the Nashville race scheduled for Dec. 9 to 13.