Times and data
How to pace HYROX
Updated · Rivo
To pace HYROX®, set a target finish, split it into runs, stations and roxzone the way real finishers of that time did, run the first kilometre at the pace you plan for the middle ones, and expect run 8 to be your slowest. Open men who finished in 1:25:00–1:29:59 in the 2025/26 season averaged 5:10 per km (8:20 per mile) on runs 2 to 7, spent 38:26 on the eight stations and 7:43 in the roxzone, and took 42 seconds longer on run 8 than on their average middle run.
Every number here is a real group of finishers from 702,095 public HYROX results with all 16 splits, not a target worked back from a finish. Below: the method in eight steps, then the four questions it raises: what pace to run, how fast to start, whether to split evenly, and how to pace the stations. The full split tables are on the splits guide and the running pace chart; this page is how to use them.
How do you pace a HYROX race?
Start from a finish you can actually run, turn it into a budget for every part of the race, and spend it evenly through the middle so there is something left for the end. Eight steps, each with what real finishers did:
- Pick a finish you can run. Your last race, or a prediction from your benchmarks; the time predictor guide explains how one is built. Every number below follows from it.
- Split it three ways. Take the five-minute bracket just under your target on the splits guide. Open men who finished in 1:25:00–1:29:59 averaged 41:31 of running, 38:26 of stations and 7:43 of roxzone; Open women in the same bracket 42:53, 37:26 and 7:28.
- Turn the running into a pace. Divide by eight: 5:11 per km (8:21 per mile) for those men and 5:22 per km (8:38 per mile) for those women.
- Run 1 at your middle-run pace. The slower the finish, the harder people start relative to themselves; more on that below.
- Expect run 3 to be slower than run 2. It follows 50 m of sled push at 152 kg (335 lb) for Open men and 102 kg (225 lb) for Open women, sled included: in the 1:25 bracket, Open men’s run 3 took 22 seconds longer than their run 2. That’s normal, not a sign to push.
- Hold the stations to your bracket’s times. The SkiErg and the row change little from one finish time to the next; the wall balls, burpee broad jumps, sandbag lunges and sled pull change most.
- Count the roxzone. It is on the clock: 7:43 for those Open men, longer than their farmers carry and SkiErg together took (6:52).
- Plan run 8 as your slowest, and check ahead or behind at every segment, so you correct on the next run instead of finding out at the finish.
What pace should you run in HYROX?
The pace the finishers of your target time held, from the bracket just under it. For a sub-90, Open men averaged 5:11 per km (8:21 per mile) over all eight runs and Open women 5:22 per km (8:38 per mile).
For a sub-80 it was 4:39 per km (7:30 per mile) for men and 4:47 (7:42 per mile) for women; for a sub-1:40, 5:43 (9:12) and 5:55 (9:31). Every bracket from sub 60 to sub 2:00 is on the running pace chart, with Pro and how the same finish was run in each division.
How fast should the first run of HYROX be?
No faster than the pace you plan for runs 2 to 7. In the 2025/26 season, Open men who finished in 1:05:00–1:09:59 were 22 seconds faster on run 1 than on their average middle run and 26 seconds slower on run 8; men who finished in 1:50:00–1:54:59 were 66 seconds faster on run 1 and 100 seconds slower on run 8.
Both brackets mix all the season’s venues, and the pattern grows steadily with finish time: the slower the finish, the faster the start relative to the middle runs, and the slower run 8. Open women show it too, flatter: 19 seconds faster on run 1 in the 1:05 bracket, 49 in the 1:50 bracket.
Judge run 1 by pace and effort, not by its split. Every venue lays out its start differently, so run 1’s split moves by a minute or more from one course to the next; the running pace guide shows by how much.
Should you run an even pace or a negative split in HYROX?
Aim for an even pace through the middle and don’t plan a negative split: on average, no bracket of Open men or women ran one. In every five-minute bracket, runs 5 to 8 took longer than runs 1 to 4, by 1:10 for Open men who finished in 1:05:00–1:09:59 and by 3:56 for those who finished in 1:50:00–1:54:59.
| Finish | Open men | Open women |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00:00–1:04:59 | +1:01 | +1:00 |
| 1:05:00–1:09:59 | +1:10 | +0:59 |
| 1:10:00–1:14:59 | +1:16 | +1:05 |
| 1:15:00–1:19:59 | +1:26 | +1:12 |
| 1:20:00–1:24:59 | +1:38 | +1:16 |
| 1:25:00–1:29:59 | +1:50 | +1:25 |
| 1:30:00–1:34:59 | +2:05 | +1:34 |
| 1:35:00–1:39:59 | +2:31 | +1:51 |
| 1:40:00–1:44:59 | +2:55 | +2:12 |
| 1:45:00–1:49:59 | +3:25 | +2:30 |
| 1:50:00–1:54:59 | +3:56 | +2:53 |
| 1:55:00–1:59:59 | +4:37 | +3:18 |
Average of everyone in each five-minute finish bracket: the four runs after the burpee broad jumps minus the four before them. A plus means the second half of the running was slower. HYROX season 2025/26: 241,910 results with all 16 splits.
Most of that gap sits at the two ends: a quick run 1 and a slow run 8. The runs between hold close to level: Open men in the 1:25 bracket ran runs 3 to 7 in 5:13, 5:11, 5:22, 5:13 and 5:13, with run 5, after the burpee broad jumps, the slowest of them. The fastest brackets ran the most even races.
How do you pace the stations in HYROX?
Hold each one to the time athletes of your target finish took, and treat the ergs as steady work rather than a place to win time: the SkiErg separates finishes least of all eight stations. Between Open men who finished in 1:10:00–1:14:59 and those who finished in 1:50:00–1:54:59, the median SkiErg differed by only 35 seconds and the median row by 52, while the median wall balls differed by 4:39.
The minutes are decided at the wall balls, the burpee broad jumps, the sandbag lunges and the sled pull, and the last two stations of the race are among them. The median time on every station for every five-minute bracket is on how to find your weakest station; set your own station times beside your target’s row and you know where your plan is tight. What each station adds to every five minutes of finish time is on the station times guide.
How do you stay on pace during a HYROX race?
Carry a target for every segment and check ahead or behind at each one, so you find out at run 3 rather than at the finish. Sixteen targets are a lot to remember at race pace: write them down, or put them on a watch.
Rivo’s Apple Watch app does this from your predicted finish: 16 targets, one for each run and each station, with an allowance for the time between them, and one number on your wrist, ahead or behind. It is part of the paid Plan, with a 14-day free trial, and needs an iPhone and an Apple Watch: there is no Garmin or Android version. How it works.
Where do these numbers come from?
From 702,095 public HYROX results of the 2025/26 season, each with all 16 splits: every figure is a real group of finishers, averaged or at its median.
- Source: 702,095 public HYROX results from 98 venues in the 2025/26 season, read through pyrox-client, an independent open-source client, and loaded on 2 September 2026. Only results with all 16 splits and a finish between 40 and 300 minutes count.
- Brackets are five minutes wide, by finish time. Run, station and roxzone figures are averages of everyone in the bracket, so they add up to its average finish; the station comparisons between brackets use medians.
- Runs as timed. A run split is the time between the timing mats for that 1 km, so where a venue lays out its start or finish differently, run 1 and run 8 move with it. Every bracket mixes all the season’s venues.
- Small groups are left out. A bracket with fewer than 50 results shows no times, and every table states how many results sit behind it.
- Nothing here describes one athlete: only counts, averages and medians of groups, never a name or a single result.