The air inside the indoor arena is thick with sweat and adrenaline. Sneakers slam against the floor in rhythmic bursts as hundreds of bodies surge forward for the first kilometre run, the gateway to a gruelling sequence of eight runs and eight workouts. Thirty-nine-year-old pastry chef Pooja Dhingra, who has spent years behind an oven, never imagined she’d be among them, juggling towards the finish line. “Being always in the overweight category and then having an ‘athlete’ tag meant a lot to me.” For someone who had lived with self-doubt around fitness, Hyrox felt both intimidating and irresistible. Now, swept up by the roar of the crowd and the shared determination of strangers, she finds herself chasing more than a finish line — a new identity.

Hyrox is a global indoor fitness race that blends running with functional workouts in a simple but punishing formula: a 1 km run followed by one workout, repeated eight times. Born in Europe, it has spread to cities worldwide, all following the exact same format so a participant in Mumbai runs the same race as one in Berlin or New York. Marketed as the “race for everybody,” it’s built for both professional athletes and everyday fitness enthusiasts looking for a challenge. Its virality lies in its design — photogenic, shareable, and instantly recognisable. When the format arrived in India, Mumbai’s restless fitness community embraced it as both a test of endurance and a badge of belonging.