On Saturday 20th June, the streets of Stockholm will be bathed in a golden light and inundated with partygoers marking the annual summer solstice celebration, Midsummer. Merrymakers will dance around maypoles and toast the longest day of the year with loved ones over traditional dishes of pickled herring, strawberries and new potatoes.
Among them will be Annie Reid, who just hours before will have competed in the HYROX World Championships at the ripe age of 75.
The mother-of-four joined her local gym, E3 Fitness, based in Lavenham, Suffolk three years ago with the intention of being fit enough to run a 2km.
Fast forward to the end of 2025 and she finished in the top 0.5% at her first HYROX competition (Women’s Singles) in London, and first in her age category (70-74) with a time of 2:11:56. “I’d entered HYROX purely to complete it, not to compete,’ she explains of her initiation into the world of HYROX. “My only goal was to get to the finish line. When I finished, I felt like I’d already achieved what I set out to do, and I was really pleased.”
Days later she was back in the gym and considering setting her sights on completing a 10km by the end of 2026 when she received an email explaining that she had qualified for the HYROX World Championships in Sweden. “I thought it was a mistake,” she laughs. “I was completely gobsmacked.”
Her personal trainers and E3 Fitness owners, Dave and Vicky Edwards, encouraged her to accept the invitation, reminding her that she’d just shown that she was more than capable of getting to the finish line again. “I thought it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” adds Annie.
Sport has long played a crucial role in Annie’s life. “I played tennis from the age of nine or 10 and competed in tournaments as a teenager,” she says, noting that her relationship to fitness ebbed and flowed with the needs of raising a family. But it’s only in the last few years that she’s learned the holistic benefits of movement, both physical and mental. “I don’t think I’d fully connected the buzz you get from sport, such as the endorphins, until I got older. I realised you don’t need to do two or three hours of training at a time. If you train in a targeted way, you can still get that feeling.”
When it came to preparing for her first HYROX competition last December, the septuagenarian and her trainers focussed on being “more targeted” around specific exercises, gradually increasing her efforts and weights over time.
She began with completing two gym sessions a week and complemented her cardio and weights workouts with two Pilates classes to improve her mobility and stability. “I never felt like, ‘I can’t do this’,” she reflects of the manageable training plan. “By December, I was where I needed to be and thought, ‘I like feeling like this’. After the competition, I stopped for a couple of weeks over Christmas and realized how much I missed training.”
One of the key pillars of Annie’s training has been improving her running, using the NHS Couch to 5K app in the early days before transitioning to treadmill runs, which she now does two to three times a week. “Until race day, I don’t think I fully appreciated that HYROX is really a running race, with everything else added in,” she reflects. “It helps having a plan. I put sessions in my diary, so there’s accountability. And I know that consistency really works. That’s what keeps me going.”
When it came to race day, Annie admits she didn’t know what to expect from the event, but knew that she needed to concentrate primarily on her pace and keeping calm. “Everything I’d read said to not go out too fast,” she shares. “You’ve got 8km of running so if you blow out early, you’ll struggle.” As a result, she kept her strides steady, running an average pace of 6:38 minutes, and breaking down each segment of the race into chunks, whether that was 100m at a time on the rower or 10 pulls on the SkiErg. “You don’t eat an elephant in one go, you break it into manageable pieces,” she says.
While Annie didn’t have a target completion time for the competition, her personal trainer Vicky kept an astute eye on her pace, cheering her on along the route with the competitor’s friends and family. “I knew which exercises I felt comfortable with, like rowing, and where I needed to be careful, like on the SkiErg.
My least favorite [exercise] is wall balls, especially at the end when your body is begging you to stop. Burpee broad jumps aren’t a favorite either.” An unexpected boon of the day was being welcomed into the HYROX community. “It felt exhilarating to be in a place where everyone was celebrating each other,” she notes. “People were going around encouraging me. Everyone wants everyone else to do well. It’s a really lovely atmosphere.”
Recovery and staying injury-free have been key components of Annie’s training journey to date. In addition to visiting a chiropractor “for maintenance”, she’s also prioritizing sleep and mobility, staying consistent with stretching, bike sessions and Pilates. “I’m making my body move, but not pushing it,” she explains.
She’s also realistic with some of the risks that can come as a result of training, regardless of age and preparation. “If I do end up with an injury then that’s life,” she says. “Things happen in life, but if I take as much care as I can, then that’s all I can do.” Annie is also accepting when it comes to modifying movements, if necessary, for her body and its abilities. “I had breast cancer about 17 years ago and because of an operation it changed the way my body worked, and that’s ok. It might not work exactly the same [as before], but I work around it. You can have an issue with your body but work around it – you don’t have to do the same [moves] as everyone else.”
While the title “HYROX World Championship qualifier” would have most people updating their social media bios if given half the chance, Annie says the biggest takeaway of taking part in the competition is that it’s helping her pay into what she and her trainers refer to as her “health pension”. “I have four gorgeous children and they know that if I’m working out and staying fit then I’m in a good place,” she says.
Reflecting on what she’s learned in recent years through training, Annie has welcomed the idea that fitness isn’t just about getting your body into a healthy state, but your mindset too. “Training has made me stronger and more capable of dealing with things in a different way. I’m calmer about things as well. I love life now. It’s not that I didn’t before, but I’m celebrating it by being able to do what I’m doing at the moment.”
Her next HYROX competition coincides with the end of spring, but for Annie, this season of her life has only just begun.
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