There is nothing quite like training alongside someone who pushes you. A good training partner drags your fitness to places you would never reach on your own. They make the hard sessions feel possible, they hold you accountable on the mornings you would rather stay in bed, and they turn suffering into something you almost look forward to. So it makes sense that when race day comes around, the instinct is to stick together and chase the same clock.
Here is the problem. The person who makes you fitter in training can quietly wreck your race if you let their pace become your pace. Racing is deeply personal. Your engine, your fuelling, your experience and your nerves are all different from theirs. When you glue yourself to someone else on the floor, you stop running your own plan and start running theirs.
I learnt this in the most honest way possible, by living it with one of my clients. It was his first ever HYROX and the adrenaline got the better of him. He went out far too hard on the first two runs, riding the buzz of the crowd and the excitement of the day. It felt great in the moment. Then we hit the sled push, and everything changed. By run three he dropped off a cliff, picked up a stitch and a cramp in his stomach, and ended up walking.
From there I carried most of the station work all the way through to station six, which was where he finally got his spring back and started to feel like himself again. He was hanging on, but he was also learning in real time what going out too hard actually costs you. We crossed the line together in 1:07.
Here is the part I love. He died out there, but he also loved every second of it. That race lit a fire in him. It made him hungrier, and far more willing to listen to race strategy the next time around. Sometimes the lesson has to be felt in the legs before it truly lands.
Train together, race your own plan
None of this means you should train alone. Keep the partner who sharpens you. Keep the shared sessions that build your fitness. Just separate the roles. Training is where you push each other. Racing is where you execute the pacing you have practised, at the effort that suits your body on the day.
There is one big exception, and it is a good one. Doing a HYROX alongside an experienced athlete can be brilliant, especially if that person is your coach and has been monitoring how you are performing week after week. If someone who truly knows your engine tells you to hold back early, that is worth trusting on race day. They can see the whole picture when you are too fired up to see it yourself.
So enjoy the buzz of going into a race with your people. Just remember that the finish line rewards the athlete who ran their own race, not the one who tried to keep up. Train together, race your own plan, and you get the best of both worlds.