Does a shorter or longer roxzone really impact performance? Plus, what are the biggest podium gaps in HYROX history?
Welcome to The Extra Lap! Each week, we’ll be sharing HYROX insights and analysis, product updates, stories, community shoutouts and much more.
Stat of the Week
Last week, Josh Van Zeeland (54:57) and James Kelly (55:25) put on a show at HYROX Seoul. However, we noticed quite a large gap with 3rd place overall for men’s pro (1:04:05).
That got us wondering: was this the biggest 1st-vs-3rd gap ever?
It turns out it was the second-largest on record (we looked back to 2022) for men’s pro.
The largest gap came this past summer at HYROX Delhi, when Rylan Schadegg won in 57:34, finishing 12 minutes and 34 seconds ahead of 3rd place. Tragically, Rylan passed away just weeks later.
Here are the top five 1st-vs-3rd gaps in Men’s and Women’s Pro since 2022:
Men’s Pro
- S8 2025 Delhi - Rylan Schadegg - 0:12:34
- S8 2025 Seoul - Josh Van Zeeland - 0:09:08
- S7 2024 Incheon - Gabe Heck - 0:09:02
- S7 2024 Singapore - Gabe Heck - 0:08:56
- S4 2022 Dallas - Hunter Mcintyre - 0:08:26
Women’s Pro
- S5 2022 Hong Kong - Tamarind Robinson - 0:24:09
- S5 2023 Wien - Mirjam Von Rohr - 0:16:21
- S7 2024 Beijing - Fang Zhu - 0:14:25
- S4 2022 Los Angeles - Haley Brogan - 0:10:40
- S7 2024 Nice - Jezabel Kremer - 0:10:24
Don’t Blame the Roxzone!
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We often hear athletes blame slower performances on a “longer roxzone.”
And while roxzone size does vary from course to course, we have been told that HYROX ensures that run + roxzone is always 8.7 km. In theory, a longer roxzone should be paired with a shorter total run.
This is also why RoxOpt typically avoids comparing run time or roxzone time in isolation as they’re not consistent across venues.
To get to the bottom of this, we analyzed all sub-58 Men’s Pro and sub-65 Women’s Pro performances from the past 365 days, excluding Elite 15 races (which lack a separate roxzone split though the transitions are baked into the run splits).
We focused on this population because elite level athletes do not rest or walk in the roxzones. If a longer roxzone is truly a disadvantage, it would become clear.
Our hypothesis
If HYROX is correctly adjusting courses to keep total distance at 8.7 km, then longer roxzones should correlate with shorter run times.
And that’s exactly what the data shows.
When you treat the roxzone as an extension of the run, longer vs. shorter roxzones don’t meaningfully impact performance.
But if you treat the roxzone like a rest zone, you’re almost certainly giving away time.
Rich Ryan Knowledge Drop
RoxOpt partner Rich Ryan dropped a fantastic video discussing how to train for HYROX sleds. Lots of gems in here that I’ve been experiencing myself with his coaching… and I need all the help I can get.
Headed to HYROX Chicago
We’ll be in HYROX Chicago this weekend and racing Sunday night. If you are there, come say hello!
We’ll have some RoxOpt stickers to give away… and also maybe some extra hats!
