How to run a Hyrox sim at your gym

A Hyrox sim at a gym is not a licensed race. It is your members doing the same kind of work, in the same kind of order, with a clock everyone can see. Treat it like a small meet, not a Saturday class with extra cones. Pick a format that fits your floor, seed people into heats so the stations do not jam, and put results up while people are still in the parking lot.

If you have never run one, start smaller than you think. A full sim with eight stations and a kilometre of running between them will fill a Saturday and eat your volunteer list. A half, or a four station version with shorter runs, still feels like race day. Members get the nerves, the heat start, and a time they can chase next month.

When you want the software walkthrough, the setup guide covers sign up, the scoring sheet, and heats. You can sign up and put a live board on phones the same day. Pricing is free to run, then pay per race when you want broadcast and heat seeding.

Pick a format you can actually staff

Write the format on a whiteboard before you touch a spreadsheet. Name it in language members already use: full sim, half sim, Hyrox Strong, or a partner version. Then list every station and every run. If you cannot point at a piece of equipment and a judge for each line, cut the format until you can.

A full sim is eight stations with a 1 km run before each one. That is a lot of running for most boxes. A half sim with four stations and 500 m runs is the version most gyms should run first. Hyrox Strong keeps the stations and adds load. A partner sim doubles the social energy and halves the number of start waves you need for the same headcount.

Freeze the format a week out.

Map the room like a meet director

Walk the floor with a roll of tape and a mean friend. The mean friend will tell you the run course crosses the sled lane. You want stations in a loop, not a pile. Athletes should leave a station, hit the run, and come back to the next station without weaving through a class that is still warming up.

Put the SkiErg and the rower on the wall so cords stay out of the run. Put sleds on the longest straight line you have, even if that is the turf hallway. Wall balls need a clear target and a bounce zone. Farmers carry wants a long lane with a turnaround cone, not a slalom through kettlebells.

The run is the part gyms underestimate. An out and back on the sidewalk works if you marshal the turnaround. An indoor 50 m shuttle works if you count laps honestly and put a judge on the count. What does not work is "just run around the block" with no marshal.

Leave a holding pen for the next heat. Athletes waiting on deck should see the clock and hear the start without standing on the working floor. If they wait in the lobby, they miss their heat. If they wait on the run course, they become obstacles.

Staff it like you mean it

You do not need a production crew. You do need names next to jobs. For a 40 person half sim:

1. One floor lead who never takes a station. They hold the heat list, the start clock, and the radio.
2. One judge per station, or one judge covering two quiet stations if you are tight.
3. One run marshal at the turnaround.
4. One timer or scorer who only touches times.
5. One person on check in, bibs, and "where do I go".

That is six to eight people. If you cannot find them, shrink the field or shrink the format. Brief the crew the night before: one sentence per movement, what a no rep looks like, where unfinished work goes on the sheet. On race day the floor lead answers questions. Judges watch athletes.

Take entries, then seed the floor

Open registration early enough that you can build heats without guessing. Name, division, and whether they have raced this format before. Partner name if it is doubles. Close the list the morning of so you are not reprinting lane cards at 8:12.

You can take those entries on your own race page. People get a confirmation, you get a list, and the list can seed heats instead of living in a group chat. The setup guide walks through the form, Eventbrite, and a CSV if you already sold tickets somewhere else. Print a check in sheet anyway. Phones die. People show up with a different partner.

A heat sheet is the start list: who goes when, in which lane, in which division. Count your limiting equipment. If you have four sleds, a heat of eight singles will wait. Work backwards from that number. Add a gap so the last person in heat 1 is off the farmers carry before heat 2 starts the first run. For a half sim, 8 to 12 minutes is a decent gap. For a full sim on a tight floor, give it 15 to 20.

Seed by ability. Faster athletes in earlier heats so the leaderboard has names on it. First timers together so judges can coach the standards. Doubles share a lane.

If you want this done without an afternoon of dragging names around a grid, how to build heat sheets for a gym fitness race is the companion piece. Heatsheet can pull the registrations and fill the lanes, then put heat, lane, and start time on each athlete's page so they stop asking the front desk. That sits on Heatsheet+, and you can sign up free before you unlock it.

Time it so the result feels real

A sim dies when the times feel made up. Pick one method and stick to it.

The simple version: each athlete has a running clock from their heat start. The scorer writes a finish time when the last wall ball is done, or a DNF if they miss a station or hit a time cap. That single number is what the room came for. Station splits are a gift for coaching later. They are not the leaderboard.

If you have chips, great. If you have three stopwatches and a clipboard, also great. What you cannot do is mix methods mid race, or let athletes shout their own time at the scorer. How to time and score a Hyrox style simulation event gets into sheets, DNF, DNS, and putting the board on a TV.

Put the live leaderboard where people can see it without crowding the scorer. Phones in the lobby. A TV on the wall. Type the time in the sheet, watch the name climb. That is the moment members talk about on Monday.

Race day, without the scramble

A Saturday half sim with 40 to 60 athletes can look like this. Doors at 7:30. Check in, bibs, a short walk of the course. Standards briefing at 8:00, ten minutes, then questions. Heat 1 on deck at 8:20. First start at 8:30. Hold the schedule even if someone is in the bathroom. Once you slip five minutes you will slip twenty.

Between heats the floor lead only does three things: confirm the next lanes, confirm every judge is in place, and clear the run of people taking photos. Feed people. A case of bananas and water will prevent more DNFs than a speech about grit. Keep a spare sandbag and a spare handle for the farmers carry.

When the last heat finishes, do not vanish into the office to clean up the sheet. Publish. The board should already be live. Post the top of each division and say when the next sim is. The next sim sells in that hour, not in a newsletter on Thursday.

You will know the day worked if nobody waited twenty minutes in a clump, every athlete can find their time without asking you, and your crew would do it again.

If you want the board, the heats, and the athlete pages without a stack of tools, sign up and make the race page first. The setup guide is the checklist. Pricing stays out of the way until you need the big screen.