When it comes to fitness, 70-year-old Carole Munro is in a class of her own.
The Turriff gran-of-four was 60 when she took up triathlon, an event she still competes in a decade later.
She also runs, cycles, goes wild swimming and now and again does a parachute jump with her fitness instructor son Stuart — none of which is a traditional activity for someone her age.
But Carole really IS in a class of her own when it comes to the races she enters — literally.
The septuagenarian, who turns 71 in December, is often the only person in her age group.
“It’s embarrassing,” Carole says with a laugh. “You’re the only one on the podium.”
Carole ready to take on Hyrox challenge
Her latest undertaking, however, will beat even that.
On November 23 she travels to Valencia in Spain to take part in a Hyrox event, a race that combines running with functional fitness.
It will be her second Hyrox – her first was in London’s Olympia arena last December when she teamed up with her son to complete a doubles race.
This time, she is going solo, tackling the Hyrox’s daunting indoor course all on her own.
What’s more, as Hyrox is the latest exercise craze amongst millennials and Gen Zers, most of her fellow racers will be at least half her age.
And it’s unlikely that many of them will have had a double hip replacement, like Carole had earlier this year.
“I said to my son the other day, can I not retire?” Carole jokes. “But I do get a buzz out of [the events]. It’s good fun.”
What is Hyrox and why is it so popular?
Carole aims to complete the Valencia Hyrox in under two hours.
In that time, she will run a total of eight kilometres, stopping every kilometre to take on one of Hyrox’s eight ‘stations’.
Each of these stations is a functional fitness exercise — at the first, Carol will complete a kilometre ski on a ski machine; at the third pull a weighted sled 50 metres.
The eighth and final station is 75 wall balls, a squatting exercise where you throw a heavy ball above a certain height.
Despite — or perhaps because of — Hyrox leaving many of it participants floundering in a puddle of their own sweat, the event has surged in popularity over the past two years.
The first event, in Germany in 2017, had just 650 entrants. Today, more than 200,000 people with an average age of 37 take part around the world, according to Hyrox organisers.
The event is so popular that Carole was unable to get a slot at this year’s Glasgow race, the only Hyrox held in Scotland.
But she’s been training harder than ever to compete in this ultimate test of endurance.
“I’m actually in better condition in my 70s than I was in my 30s,” says Carole, who trains at a Gardenstone gym and at home in Turriff.
“I would like to finish in 1h 45m but if I get two hours, I’ll be chuffed.”
Carole takes up karate after a door-step encounter
But if you think doing a Hyrox at the age of 70 is the most interesting thing about Carole, then buckle up.
Carole’s journey to Valencia is just the latest in a long list of fitness firsts for the former Aberdonian.
She came to exercise relatively late in life, taking up running as a single mother to three sons.
Then, when she was 30 and working for a local butcher, she had a distressing encounter with a man while bill collecting.
“There was a guy at the door, and he threatened me because he wasn’t going to pay,” Carole remembers. “I got in a panic, and somebody said to me, ‘You know, you should do a bit of self-defence.’”
She joined a karate club run by Aberdeen marital arts legend Ronnie Watt.
Ronnie, who still lives in Aberdeen, is one of Europe’s top karate coaches — in 2010 he was honoured by the Japanese government with the Order of the Rising Sun in recognition of his services to the discipline.
A year later he picked up an OBE.
Under Ronnie’s tutelage, Carole was bitten by the karate bug and practised every day.
She travelled to London to train with Japanese karate masters and quickly advanced through the ranks, earning her black belt in less than 12 months. She was even a Scottish champion belt for a while, and coached her sons in the martial art.
“When I do something, I do it 200%,” Carole says.
As a working mother, she also proudly trained on a budget; running while pushing her children in buggies, for example.
When she did her first triathlon she cycled on a mountain bike instead of a more expensive road bike; though she admits she saw another woman on a bike with a basket on the front.
“So I though, oh my God, I can’t be that bad,” she laughs.
Carole takes Rocky role versus elite Hyrox athletes
Her Hyrox training also sticks to the essentials. She’s built a rudimentary gym at her home and also goes to Brian Meekham’s Claymore Fitness gym in Gardenstone.
But her spit-and-sawdust approach isn’t shared by other Hyroxers — especially the handful of competitors in her age group.
In Valencia, she will go head-to-head with life-long athletes with their own private gyms and coaches.
It’s Rocky vs Ivan Drago in the movie Rocky IV, with Carole as Sylvester Stallone.
“I’m competitive, but they’ve all got personal trainers and nutritionists,” Carole laments. “I mean, I just go on to the local gym and train there myself.”
No stopping Carole as she plans more Hyrox
Carole plans to compete in more Hyrox events even though she’s had problems with one of her hip replacements. She’s hoping another operation will fix it.
One day she may even do a Hyrox with her granddaughter, who recently completed a junior version.
“I’ll keep going as long as I can,” she says.
Meanwhile, she will continue running, despite recently experiencing a shock result in her age group.
“Somebody actually beat me,” she says. “It was the standing joke for a while — I got second and I was like, ‘Oh, I never get second.’”
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