Hyrox myths busted: Former GB distance runner lifts the lid on runners’ Hyrox assumptions

With Hyrox welcoming a projected 1.2 million athletes across the 2025/26 season, more than double last year’s 550,000, a growing share of those entries are coming from the UK’s running community. Marathon and half-marathon runners are signing up in record numbers, with London, Manchester and Birmingham events selling out within hours.

But for every runner who arrives at the start line confident that their training will translate, plenty get caught out by the same misconceptions about how their running will hold up. 

To help participants separate fact from fiction, Matt Bond, former GB distance runner and representative for heritage British running brand Ronhill, puts the five biggest running myths around Hyrox to the test:

Myth 1: “If you can run a sub-90 half-marathon, you’ll be a strong Hyrox runner.” – FALSE

“A strong half-marathon time tells you how fast you can run when fresh. Hyrox running is done under fatigue, with your heart rate already elevated and your legs already loaded. Plenty of sub-90-minute runners struggle to hold 5mins/km in a Hyrox because they’ve never trained to run compromised. The runners who do well are the ones who’ve practised running tired, not just running fast.”

Myth 2: “The running portions are where runners gain time on everyone else.” – TRUE

“This one holds up, but with a major caveat. Runners absolutely have an advantage on the 8x 1km, but most squander it by going out at 5K pace on run one and falling apart by run five. Apply a proven marathon pacing strategy instead: even effort, slight negative split, save the surge for the final runs. The fastest Hyrox athletes in the world don’t run their first kilometre fastest, they run their last.”