09/03/2026
We did it!
1:06:02 + 2:00 min penalty on the first station (ski erg, have no idea why)
All glory to God (more on that in a bit)
I set out to hit my 1:08 target earlier this year and during my first HYROX in NY, I fell short by 3 mins and 21 seconds hitting 1:11:21 + a 15s penalty
Hitting this time on my second go around, especially coming off an Achilles injury from a few weeks ago means so much and there’s so many people I’d like to thank
All of our clients in our South Asian Six-Pack Transformation Program who’ve supported my journey every step of the way over the last 8 months
My family who’s always rooting for me and always in my corner
My coach Gabe Heck who’s ranked #7 in the world and who I couldn’t have done this without
A former client of ours Enrico Pasquarello Enrico Pasquarello who’s a retired Physical Therapist and so graciously helped me out with the Achilles injury over the past few weeks just as if I was a client
And so many more, I’m feeling incredibly grateful
Above all, I’d like to thank Almighty God
I never fully comprehended how powerful it was when an athlete or anyone achieving any goal would contribute all of it to God
What I’ve learned through my HYROX training over the past several months is that when I try to do it in my own strength (i.e. caffeinate, try really hard and maybe even going at an unnaturally fast pace, etc.) I always come up short
However, when I surrender to God and trust in him fully, I’ve performed feats I never thought possible such as breaking a sub-5 minute mile a couple of months ago
It’s as if he goes before me and is with me every step of the way
There’s no shot I would have reached my goal time especially with how banged up my Achilles was without God’s help
I literally was on my knees with tears coming down praying to God that he’d help me run this race and I know he heard my prayer
And thank you all who came along the journey with me
I’m going to let my Achilles’ heal (no pun intended haha 🥴) before getting into more running and races
For now, I’m excited to get back to my singularity of focus with helping the members in our program get life changing transformations
Irslan “The Lion” Ali