CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Always looking for different ways to challenge and push herself, Kristen Bartiss got into Spartan racing and finished 43^rd in the women's division at the World Championship five years ago in North Lake Tahoe, Calif.

            But apparently, crawling through mud under barbed wire, carrying heavy logs and scaling walls wasn't enough of a challenge for Bartiss, now in her ninth year as athletic trainer for the Baylor soccer team.

            In her first foray into HYROX, a crazy fitness race that combines running with a variety of workout stations that include a kettle bell farmers carry, burpee broad jumps and pushing a 335-pound sled, Bartiss surprised even herself by winning an event in Fort Worth this spring.

             "The first one, I had no idea what I was doing," she said. "I just trained what I thought would be good, ran at a time that I thought I could run and just hoped for the best. But I would say that I'm very mentally tough, and I'm kind of used to going into the pain cave. For me, it was more a matter of, 'Where can I keep my heart rate where I can push through?'''

            As a complete novice to the sport, Bartiss competed in the open women's division that uses some lower weights. Not only did she win her 30-34 age division at the Fort Worth race, she finished first overall among all females.

            "I wasn't expecting that at all. I had no idea," Bartiss said.

            The cherry on top was that she also qualified for the HYROX World Championship that was held May 27 in Manchester, England.

            "My first thought was, 'Oh my gosh, my first race, I qualify for the World Championship!''' she said. "It was so exciting, but also terrifying, because it meant that I would have to do the higher weights in the pro division . . . at the World Championship level. Should I? Should I not? I only had three days to decide whether to go or not.

            "But this was like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I've never done an international race. I've never been to the UK. So, I was like, 'Maybe I'll just give it a whirl.'''

            A relative newcomer in the fitness racing game, HYROX began six years ago in Germany and eventually migrated to the U.S.

            Looking for a change of pace from the Spartan racing, Bartiss planned on doing her first HYROX race in 2020, but she had some heart complications from a bout with COVID and wasn't medically cleared.

            Still unable to compete last year, she worked as a head judge at one of the obstacles at an event in Texas and "loved it."

            But when a race was held this past March at the Fort Worth Convention Center, "I didn't really know what to expect," Bartiss said. "I had never done anything like this before."

Kristen Bartiss HYROX

           With the combination of 1,000-meter runs around an indoor track with eight different workout stations or obstacles, HYROX has "become the new fad," attracting crossovers from triathletes, Spartan racers, CrossFitters and power lifters. It is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, with competitions in 11 different countries.

            "Anybody who has any sort of athletic ability at a high level has been switching over to the sport," Bartiss said, "because it is so different. It's very high-intensity, you're finishing in an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and it's heart rate to the max, kind of going for it."

            After an opening 1,000-meter run, the first workout station is 1,000 meters on a SkiErg, a stationary machine that was initially designed as a training tool for cross country skiers. From there, it's pushing a 227-pound sled for 50 meters and then pulling a 335-pound sled for the same distance.

            "It's not like it's on turf and it slides, it's on carpet and very high friction-resistance," Bartiss said. "I'm actually pretty good at the sled, because I feel like I'm small and I'm strong, so I'm able to push the sled. And I pulled the sled way faster than I thought I was going to."

            On the hyrox.com website, it says the 80-meter burpee broad jump station is "both loved and hated at the same time." You hit the ground in a push-up position, then rise up and do a broad jump . . . for 80 meters.

            "Smashing your chest into the ground is not the most ideal," Bartiss said. "But it's all a quad-burner. Every obstacle really makes your legs get destroyed."

            Starting the second half of the race, the first obstacle is 1,000 meters on a rowing machine, followed by the 200-meter farmers carry with two 52-pound kettle bells. Finishing up, you do 100 meters of lunges carrying a 45-pound sandbag on your back; and then 100 reps throwing a 13-pound wall ball.

            "The wall balls are awful," Bartiss said. "Think of it like a medicine ball. You squat down and you have to get to parallel – like 90 degrees – and then you have to throw it and hit a target that's usually eight to 10 feet in the air. You've run five miles, and it's like, 'Oh, I'm almost done. I can see the finish line.' But now, you have to throw the ball 100 times in the air."

            In addition to running from station to station, there are eight 1,000-meter runs, totaling 4.97 miles.

            "For me, the runs are easy," Bartiss said. "I would pass a lot of people on the runs because it was kind of like a flush-out. I never thought in my life I'd say, 'Well, at least I get to run now.' No one says, 'I get to run.' But the obstacles are so hard. And then, my legs actually felt better after the run."
Kristen Bartiss HYROX

            A familiar face in fitness-racing circles, Bartiss surprised some of her fellow competitors when she came out of nowhere to win her first HYROX race and qualify for the World Championship.

            "At the same time, everyone was like, 'You're kind of crazy. You've run one race before, and now you're going to the World Championship and you're going to race at the heavier weight on the biggest stage, without ever doing it,''' she said.

            That's right.

            With a simple goal of "just don't get last," Bartiss finished 13^th in her age division, 41^st among all female competitors and sixth among American women.

            "Obviously, that was the hardest race I've ever done, ever," she said. "So, for that, there's a lot to recover from mentally, physically and emotionally. I had to give myself time to appreciate it, because when you finish, everything is like, 'Oh my gosh, that was so crazy!' You don't really have time to sit and actually dwell on what I did and how I did it."

            When the preseason conditioning tests for Baylor soccer began in August, Bartiss' challenge to each of the 31 student-athletes was, "You can do hard things."

            "If you really want something, and you put your mind to it," she said, "even if you think you can't do it, your brain and your body can do more than you think you can. That's been really cool to say, 'I'm 10 years older than you and I'm not playing Division I sports, but if you want to do something and you put your mind to it and put in the hard work, it does pay off.'''

            Bartiss plans to continue doing Spartan races as well, but she "found my niche" with HYROX. Tentatively, she plans on competing in HYROX Dallas on Nov. 18 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

            After a 1-1-1 start in coach Michelle Lenard's second season, the Bears will host Louisiana Tech (2-1-1) in their home opener at 7 p.m. Thursday at Betty Lou Mays Field.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

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