A fitness race simulation is the cheapest way to give members a race-day experience without the entry fee, the travel or the expo queue. It is also one of the few gym events that brings in people who have never trained with you. The hard part is not the workout. It is the logistics: who starts when, who judges what, which sled is loaded to which weight, and how you get trustworthy times on a big screen while it is happening.
This guide walks through a full simulation day in the order you will actually do it. It assumes you have a typical box or functional gym, a handful of ergs and a sled or two, and volunteers rather than paid staff.
SimDay is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by HYROX or DEKA (Spartan).
What a HYROX-style simulation actually is
The official race publishes a rulebook each season. The current singles rulebook describes the race as a 1 km (0.62 mi) run followed by one workout station, repeated eight times, with athletes starting in waves “at regular scheduled intervals” and a judging team at each station. DEKA FIT, the comparable Spartan format, uses ten zones with a 500 m (0.31 mi) run before each one, for 5 km (3.1 mi) of running in total.
Your sim does not have to copy either. What matters is that the format is fixed before entries open, that everyone in a division does the same work, and that you can time it fairly. Common choices:
| Format | What it is | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Classic 8-station | Eight rounds of run plus one station | Members preparing for an official race |
| Half sim | Four rounds, or eight rounds at reduced distance | First-timers, mixed-ability classes |
| Zone race | Short run between more stations | Gyms with limited outdoor running space |
| Partner relay | Two athletes share the work | Doubling entries without doubling heats |
If you only have a few sleds, a zone race or half sim usually flows better than a full eight-station race, because the sled stations stop being a queue.
Before the day: the decisions that matter
Format, standards and loads
Write down the station list, the distance or rep count for each, and the movement standard you will judge. Keep the standards short enough for a volunteer to remember. The station standards guide has a generic standard and the common no-reps for each station.
Then set loads per division. SimDay ships with placeholder loads so the tool works out of the box, but they are not a recommendation. Pick weights your members can move continuously in a race context, and if you want to mirror a specific race, check that race’s current rulebook rather than a forum post, because loads and standards change between seasons.
For ergs, decide the damper setting and write it on the heat sheet. Concept2 suggests starting a RowErg between 3 and 5 and a SkiErg at 3 or below, and notes that the same damper number can feel different on two machines. If two of your rowers feel very different, compare their drag factor (on the monitor: More Options, then Display Drag Factor) rather than the lever number.
Entries
Ask for more than a name and a division. You also need partner or team names for doubles and relays, any start window the athlete cannot make, and whether they are coaching, judging or volunteering on the day. That last question prevents the most common scheduling mistake: putting a coach in a heat that starts while their own athletes are racing.
Equipment and space
Count your scarcest item first. In most gyms that is sleds, then ski ergs. Your number of lanes per heat cannot exceed the number of complete station sets you have, unless you accept waiting time. The equipment checklist covers the rest, from tape and cones to spare batteries for erg monitors.
Building heats
A heat is a group of athletes who start together, one per lane. The heat interval is the gap between one heat’s start and the next. Too short and heats catch each other at the sled; too long and the day drags.
The arithmetic is simple. Divide athletes by lanes to get heats, then multiply the number of heats minus one by the interval to find when the last heat starts. Add your time cap to find when the last athlete must finish. For example, 64 athletes in 4 lanes is 16 heats; at an 8-minute interval the last heat goes off 120 minutes after the first.
In SimDay you set lanes, interval and divisions, and the tool builds heats by division, lane and sled weight, with doubles and relay teams taking one lane each. Ordering heats so sled loads change as rarely as possible is still worth doing by hand. The heat planning guide works through intervals, sled-weight blocks and coach conflicts in detail.
Publish the heat sheet a few days before. Athletes plan warm-ups, lifts home and childcare around it.
Judges and timing
Plan one lane judge per working lane, plus a head judge who resolves disputes and is not tied to a lane. A lane judge follows one athlete through every station, counts reps and taps each split on their phone in judge mode. The head judge’s decision is final and should be announced as such in the briefing.
Brief judges as a group before the first heat. Go station by station: the standard, the two or three no-reps you expect to see, and what the judge says out loud. The judging guide has a full briefing checklist, plus how to handle penalties, re-dos and disputes.
Timing depends on clocks. The heat start is stamped on the organiser’s device and each split is stamped on the judge’s phone, so every phone needs automatic date and time switched on before the first heat. If the gym Wi-Fi drops, SimDay queues taps on the judge’s phone and sends them when the connection returns, so judges should keep tapping rather than stop to troubleshoot.
On the day
Arrive with a run sheet that has times on it, not just a list of tasks. A workable order:
- Floor set-up and lane marking, ergs reset and dampers checked.
- Judges’ briefing and a test heat with two volunteers.
- Athlete briefing: route, standards, how they will know their split, where the first aider is.
- Heats on the published schedule, with the next heat waiting in a call-up area.
- Results check, disputes resolved, results published.
Put the live TV leaderboard somewhere athletes see it on the way out of the finish, not behind the start line where it distracts the next heat. Members watching their friend’s splits update live is a large part of why sims feel like a real race.
Safety and first aid
Treat a sim like any other event where people work at maximum effort. In Great Britain, HSE says the first-aid regulations do not require employers to provide first aid for members of the public, but it strongly recommends including the public in your first-aid needs assessment and making provision for them. Its event guidance also asks organisers to have plans for incidents and to test communications before the event. In practice that means a named first aider who is not judging, a clear route out of the building, water at the finish and a phone that can call emergency services.
Organisers in the US and Australia should check their own local and insurer requirements; this guide is about running the event, not medical advice.
After the day
Resolve any disputes before you publish, then export results as CSV for your records and share athlete split cards so people can post their times. Vendor case studies suggest the follow-up matters: Wodify reports that Sisu Fitness’s first sim drew 120 athletes, many new to the gym, and that the owners listed clearer run entry and exit points, better station signage and sled set-up as the things to fix next time. That is vendor-reported, but the lesson travels: write your own fix list while it is fresh.
When you are ready, open SimDay and add your first division. Everything is free during the beta.