Doubles guide

How to find a HYROX doubles partner: every option, compared

By Emi, co-founder of ROXMATCH · 16 September 2026 · Updated 2 November 2026

The short answer: ask at your gym first, post in the Instagram or Facebook group for your race, and add the race on a partner app like ROXMATCH, which filters by race, division and goal time. They do not exclude each other, so use more than one. Below, every option compared, then the five things to agree on before you commit.

Every option, honestly compared

Which one should you use?

• You train with HYROX people already. Ask at the gym first. A partner you can train with every week is hard to beat.
• Your race is in a big city. Post in the Instagram or Facebook group for that race, with your division and goal time in the first line, and add the race on ROXMATCH the same day.
• You know your race, division and goal time, and nobody around you fits. That is the case the groups handle worst and an app handles best: it shows only the athletes who picked the same race, in a division you can race together, closest goal times first.
• Your partner just dropped out. See what to do when your doubles partner can't make it.

We already knew each other, so we found each other the old way. Not everyone has someone like that, and that's exactly what ROXMATCH is for.

Emi, on racing doubles with Fabienne

Check compatibility before the station split

The first conversation is not about who takes the sled. It is about whether you are a match for the race at all.

The first thing wasn't really "who does which rep", it was more whether we were actually compatible for the race. Same division, similar expectations, realistic target, that kind of thing. Once that part makes sense, then you can figure out the station split around your strengths.

Emi

The five things to agree on

• The race. Same event, same weekend, both of you actually able to travel there.
• The division. Women, Men or Mixed, and whether you are racing Open or Pro loads.
• The goal time. One realistic number you can both hold. It settles most other arguments for you.
• The split. Who starts each station, where you swap, who finishes. Written down.
• The plan B. What happens if one of you is injured or sick in the last two weeks. Decide it now, while nobody is.

Compatible pace, not identical pace

In doubles you run every one of the eight kilometers together, so the slower runner sets the pace for both of you. That makes running the one thing you cannot split. A gap of 20 to 30 seconds per kilometer is fine: the faster runner recovers on the run and takes more at the stations. A gap of a minute per kilometer means one of you is racing and the other is waiting, and the waiting one gets cold.

Ask for a recent 5 km time or a typical easy-run pace, not a best. Race pace in doubles sits close to a comfortable tempo, because the stations keep interrupting it.

Complementary strengths beat matching ones

Only one of you works at a station at a time, and you choose who. Two strong runners who both hate the sled will both suffer on the sled. A pair where one is heavier and stronger and the other lighter and quicker can give the sled push, the sled pull and the farmers carry to one and the burpee broad jumps, the rowing and the wall balls to the other, and both finish fresher than a matched pair.

So the question is not "are we the same" but "do our weak stations overlap". If they do, agree now who takes the hit there.

Agreeing on a finish time

Take both of your solo times, or your estimates, and the doubles pair is usually 10 to 15 minutes faster than the average of the two, because the running is shared and the station work is halved. A first doubles for two 1:30 solo athletes lands around 1:15 to 1:20. If one of you says 1:10 and the other says 1:35, that is not a pairing problem to fix with training; it is a different race, and one of you will be unhappy.

Train together at least once

You do not need to live in the same city, but you need one session where you run the handovers for real. The stations are individually simple; the swaps are where a pair gets slow.

Living apart works if you do three things: run the same benchmark workout in the same week and compare, agree the station split in writing, and meet for one full simulation two to three weeks before the race.

We definitely trained together before Athens. I would not recommend meeting your doubles partner for the first time on race day unless chaos is part of your race strategy.

Emi

The mistakes we see most

• Picking on running pace alone. Pace has to be compatible, but a matched runner who shares your weak stations costs you more than a slightly slower runner who is strong where you are not.
• Picking on friendship alone. Your best training friend who wants a different race, division or finish time is a great training partner and a poor doubles partner. Agree the race first, then the person.
• Never writing the split down. "We will see on the day" turns into ten seconds of "you? me?" at every station. Decide who starts, where you swap and who finishes, and put it on your phone.
• Entering before you have a partner. Solo entries are not always convertible to doubles, and races sell out. Find the partner, then enter together.
• No plan for an injury. One in a few pairs loses someone in the last two weeks. Decide now whether the other one races solo, finds a replacement, or defers.
• Meeting for the first time on race day. One real session together, even online with the same workout, removes most of the surprises.

If you already have someone in mind

Ask them. This week.

Worst case they say no. That's still better than spending three weeks wondering whether they'd race with you and never actually asking. That's basically the problem ROXMATCH is trying to solve as well: finding someone who actually wants the same race as you.

Emi

Find your doubles partner

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