Miami Beach Fitness Festival Powered by HYROX was a destination fitness festival on the sands of Miami Beach powered by HYROX and in partnership with the City of Miami Beach, taking place from March 23 – 26, 2023. It attracted participants from around the world. Each day featured a world-class musical component as part of the Miami Beach Fitness Festival Concert Series.
For the event, HYROX had joined forces with Miami fitness event founders Frankie Ruiz, founder of the Miami Marathon and Steve Suarez, founder of WODapalooza, to collaborate alongside leading hospitality and entertainment provider Breakwater Hospitality Group on Miami’s largest fitness festival.
“Miami Beach Fitness Festival powered by HYROX is taking an important step toward elevating the fitness community in South Florida by bringing an approachable, open-for-all fitness festival to the beachfront this March,” said Frankie Ruiz, Festival Director. “The City of Miami Beach has cultivated a tremendous fitness community and elevated its approach to the health and wellness scene by providing the public access to these types of events. The city has quickly become a widely recognized global destination for fitness and we are thrilled to amplify that message through this signature event.”
Prior to the event, Christian Toetzke, founder of HYROX, added: “We are thrilled to partner with the Miami Beach Fitness Festival to bring our world class fitness racing concept to one of America’s destination cities that is steeped in sporting and athletic history. We were impressed immediately by the ambition and vision of the event and the competency of the team behind it. We’ve hosted races in some of the most iconic cities on the planet and I believe that this unique celebration of fitness and all the values we hold dear will be one of our most memorable events ever.”
Toughest HYROX Yet?
HYROX Miami differed from most HYROX events in that it took place on the beach, with the running elements being covered on sand, in the sun, and then the stations being completed under a large tent.
I don’t think anyone expected that running on sand would make the event easy in the slightest, but from speaking to any athletes who competed on the day, it sounds as if the event was BRUTALLY tough. Parts of the running were on firmer sand, parts on very soft sand, and the temperature was close to 30 degrees celcious / 86 degrees fahrenheit.
This brutal toughness was reflected in the finishing times. For example, median time in the Men’s Open was 01:51h, compared to a ‘normal’ race of 01:27h. The sled push was particularly difficult too, with the lane not completely level / on a slight slope. Median sled push time in the Men’s Open was 04:58m compared to a ‘normal’ 03:00!
In the below video, Terra Jackson, who raced both the Mixed Doubles, and the Women’s Open, on the same day, winning both, shares her thoughts on the event, and describes just how tough things were:
Let’s take a look at the results from the event:
Men’s Pro
The Men’s Pro winner was Garrett Mitchell in a time 0f 01:20:21.
Second was Gordon Bieling in 01:21:29, followed by Marques Turner in 01:22:22.
Women’s Pro
The Women’s Pro race was won by Trish Higgins in a time of 01:31:54
Second was Sarah Franklin in 01:36:51, followed by Valeria Mendez in 01:45:02.
Men’s Open
Fastest in the Men’s Open was Janik Hoffmann in a time of 01:09:07. Second was Matthias Wesemann in 01:14:22, followed by Michael Molloy in 01:17:09.
Women’s Open
Fastest in the Women’s Open race was Terra Jackson in a time of 01:20:23. Impressively, Terra had already won the mixed doubles with Dylan Scott earlier in the day. She spoke to us after the races in the video above.
Second was Maria Miranda in 01:23:15, followed by Shaina Mae Rowley in 01:24:38.
Doubles
The fastest Mixed Doubles time was set by Dylan Scott and Terra Jackson in a time of 01:05:27.
The Men’s Doubles was won by Nick Kileen and Joe Roberto in 01:05:35.
The Women’s Double was won by Katie Knight and Ashley Huhn in 01:13:56.
