A Turriff ‘supergran’ set to compete in a global fitness final in Chicago has revealed her pride at representing Scotland at the tender age of 70.
Carole Munro will fly to the US in June to compete in the Hyrox World Championships after winning a qualifying event in London.
The mum, grandmother and former Scottish karate champ only recently started competing in Hyrox, a grueling fitness race that has gained popularity in recent years, but is already a top contender in the 70-75 age group.
In Chicago, she will go head-to-head with the world’s best in front of 10,000 people at the city’s lakefront Navy Pier.
“I’ll be waving my Scottish flag,” laughs Carole.
Turriff gran Carole’s journey to Chicago Hyrox finals
Carole will take on the Hyrox course in Chicago, which features eight kilometres of running interspersed with functional exercises such as sled pulls and kettlebell swings.
The average age of a Hyroxer is about 35, but Carole took up the event last year after her fitness-coach son signed them up for a pairs race.
The duo completed the event in less than two hours, a respectable time, and Carole signed on for a solo race in Valencia that was due to take place last month.
But when the event was cancelled because of deadly rains in the city, Carole enrolled for the London race, training at her son’s F45 gym in Surbiton.
She won the race in her age group, completing the course in one hour and 56 minutes.
Despite her success, Carole says she’s nervous about the step-up in level for Chicago. The Turriff gran says she feels fitter in her 70s than she did in her 30s, but a double hip replacement last year means training and competing are a challenge.
“I’ll be up against five other people [in Chicago],” Carole says. “There’s one woman who does it really fast, but she’s obviously got good hips.”
She has targeted second place in at the world championships and is training hard. 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 Chicago, she will go compete with life-long athletes that have their own private gyms and coaches.
Second time around for proud Scot Carole
Amazingly, the Hyrox World Championship will be the second time Carole has represented Scotland at sport.
Carole took up karate in her 30s after an unpleasant encounter while working as an Aberdeen door-to-door meat salesperson.
She quickly earned her blackbelt and eventually became a Scottish champion under the instruction of Aberdeen marital arts legend Ronnie Watt.
Still, she’s surprised to be reprising the feat more than three decades later.
“I knew I’d always keep fit,” she says, “but I never thought I’d represent Scotland again.”
What is Hyrox?
A Hyrox course comprises eight kilometres of running, with athletes stopping every kilometre to take on one of Hyrox’s eight ‘stations’.
Each of these stations is a functional fitness exercise — at the first, athletes complete a kilometre ski on a ski machine; at the third pull a weighted sled 50 metres.
The eighth and final station for Carole’s age group 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.
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