I get asked this more than any other question, usually about three weeks out from someone's first race, and usually by someone who has just watched a video of an elite athlete finishing in under an hour and quietly panicked.
So let me answer it properly.
There is no such thing as a good HYROX time in the abstract. There is a good time for your first race off twelve weeks of training. There is a good time for someone in their third season chasing a personal best. Those are different questions with different answers, and comparing yourself to the wrong one is the fastest way to feel bad about a race you should be proud of.
The four honest brackets
Here is how I actually think about it when an athlete asks me where they sit.
[ BREAKDOWN ]
How I judge a finish time
Rough brackets for a men's Open race. Women's Open runs on the same structure with lighter loads. These are coaching judgements, not measured averages.
- Elite field60 minProfessional athletes. This is a full-time job.
- Seriously good75 minMultiple seasons, structured training, no weak station.
- Strong club athlete90 minRuns well under fatigue. The sleds no longer scare them.
- First race, trained110 minTwelve honest weeks of preparation. A good day out.
- First race, underdone135 minFinished it anyway. Still counts. Still a finisher.
If you take one thing from that chart, take this: the gap between a first-timer and a strong club athlete is about twenty minutes, and almost none of it is fitness you do not already have. It is pacing, transitions and knowing how to break the wall balls. That is learnable in a season.
The gap between a strong club athlete and the elite field is a different animal entirely. That one is genetics, years and a life arranged around training.
Why the first kilometre decides your finish time
The single most common way people lose ten minutes is by finding the first kilometre easy.
You are fresh, the crowd is loud, you have tapered, and one kilometre feels like nothing. So you run it forty seconds quicker than you have ever run it in training, arrive at the ski erg with your heart rate already at threshold, and spend the next seven runs paying for it.
The first run should feel almost embarrassingly controlled. If you finish the first kilometre thinking "I could have gone faster", you have paced it correctly.
I have done this myself. Berlin, my first race, 2024. I went through the first kilometre far too quickly because it felt easy, and I spent the back half of that race negotiating with myself. Everyone does it once. The trick is only doing it once.
Work out your own target
A target time is only useful if it comes with a plan for how to hit it. Put your goal in here and it will give you the pace and station budget that goes with it.
[ CALCULATOR ]
Your target time, broken into splits
Set the finish time you want. This gives you the average running pace and the station budget that gets you there.
Average run km
5:28
Average station
5:02
Running / stations
44′ / 40′
A planning model, not a prediction. Stations do not cost equal time — wall balls and the sleds take far more than the ski erg — and your own simulation splits beat any generic ratio. Use this to sanity-check a target, then refine it with real data.
Two warnings about that calculator. First, stations do not cost equal time, so the average is a planning figure rather than a prescription. Wall balls and the sleds will take considerably more than the ski erg, and you should budget accordingly. Second, your own numbers from a full simulation are worth more than any model. Do one, six weeks out, and use what it tells you.
What actually separates the brackets
When I look at why one athlete finishes at 1:50 and another at 1:30 off similar training, it is almost never a single dramatic thing. It is four ordinary things.
A word on comparing yourself to the elite field
I race in the Elite 15. I want to be honest about what that means, because I think the comparison does more harm than good.
The people at the front of this race have organised their lives around it. They are not doing a session before work and another after the kids are in bed. Comparing your first race to their finish time is like comparing your Sunday five-a-side to the Premier League. It is the same sport and it is not the same activity.
What the elite field is genuinely useful for is technique. Watch how they hold the sled. Watch their stride length on the push. Watch how they break the wall balls into sets and how little time they spend standing still. That is all transferable. The finish time is not.
So what should you aim for?
If it is your first race: aim to finish, and aim to have a plan for the first kilometre and the wall balls. That is it. Everything else is noise.
If it is your second: you already know where you lost time. Fix the biggest one. Most people find three to five minutes in transitions and pacing alone, without getting any fitter.
If you are chasing a specific number: you need a plan built around your weakest station, not your strongest. Everyone wants to train the thing they are good at. The time is in the thing they avoid.
Getting a plan that fits your target
If you want a structured route to a specific time rather than a guess, that is precisely what our coaching does: a plan built from where you actually are, with the station work aimed at whatever is costing you the most.
You can start with the free plan maker, which will build you a twelve-week outline based on your race date and your current level, or if you would rather talk it through, book a call with me and we will work out whether a target is realistic before you commit to it.
Either way: pace the first kilometre. It matters more than everything else on this page.
[ FAQ ]
Frequently asked
What is a good HYROX time for a first-timer?
Finishing is the benchmark for a first race. If you want a number to aim at, most people I coach who train sensibly for twelve weeks come home somewhere between an hour and forty and two hours ten. Anything inside that is a good first race. Outside it is still a finished race, which is the thing that counts.
Is a sub-90 HYROX good?
Yes. Sub-90 means you can run reasonably well under fatigue and you have not lost minutes on the sleds or the wall balls. It is the point where people stop calling it a challenge and start calling it a race. It usually takes a season or two of proper training.
What is a good HYROX time for a woman?
The same logic applies, on a different clock. The women's field runs the same distances with lighter station loads. Judge a first race against your own twelve weeks of training, not against a man's finish time or against the elite field.
Why is my second HYROX faster than my first?
Because the first one teaches you where you wasted time. Almost everyone finds minutes in the transitions, in going out too hard on the first run, and in breaking the wall balls badly. Experience is worth more in this race than in almost any other endurance event.
Should I have a target time for my first race?
Have a plan, not a target. Know what pace you will run the first kilometre at and know how you will break the wall balls. Those two decisions shape the whole race. A time target on a first race usually just makes people go out too fast.
Written by
Benjamin SutherlandFounder · HYROX Elite 15 athlete
Ben races in the HYROX Elite 15, competing in Doubles with his brother Harry. Pro Doubles wins include Rotterdam and Glasgow. He coaches athletes from their first race to professional level.
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