August 29, four members of 413 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron stepped outside their usual operational environment to take on a different kind of challenge in Trois-Rivières, Quebec: a HYROX-style fitness competition combining running, functional strength and endurance.
Representing 413 Squadron were Warrant Officer Dominic Veilleux, Corporal Samuel Brassard-Lajoie, Corporal Pascal Michel and Corporal Edith Lizotte, competing across the Men’s Open Doubles and Mixed Doubles categories.
The results reflected both strong preparation and teamwork. The Men’s Open Doubles team crossed the finish line in an impressive 59:50, breaking the one-hour barrier, while the Mixed Doubles team completed the event in 1:02:26.
What is HYROX?
HYROX is a fitness racing format designed around repeated transitions between running and functional exercise stations. Athletes are required to maintain their running pace while completing demanding movements such as sled pushes and pulls, rowing, lunges, carries and wall balls. The challenge is not simply strength or cardiovascular fitness: it is the ability to continue performing effectively while fatigue steadily accumulates.
That concept has obvious relevance to military fitness. For search and rescue technicians, and military members more broadly, physical performance rarely happens under ideal conditions. Operational tasks can require personnel to run, climb, swim, carry equipment, move casualties and make decisions while already physically and mentally fatigued.
HYROX-style training recreates an important part of that demand: performing a task while under physical stress. It fits fitness with operational purpose. A hard fitness race cannot reproduce the complexity of a SAR mission, but many of the qualities it develops are directly transferable:, including resilience, fighting spirit, communication and teamwork. During doubles competition, partners must continuously communicate and adapt. They have to understand when to push harder, when to take over part of the workload and when their teammate needs support. As fatigue increases, communication becomes shorter and more deliberate. Small decisions matter. Maintaining composure becomes just as important as maintaining pace.
Those same qualities are fundamental to effective military teams. For SAR-Techs in particular, high cardiovascular output is frequently combined with technical tasks, heavy equipment and teamwork in challenging environments. Training that combines strength and endurance therefore provides more than simply another way to improve fitness: it develops the ability to remain effective when the body is already under significant stress.
For the four members of 413 Squadron, the Trois-Rivières event was an opportunity to test months of training in a competitive environment and demonstrate the level of physical readiness expected within the SAR community. Breaking the one-hour mark in Men’s Open Doubles with a time of 59:50 was a particularly satisfying milestone, but the clock was only part of the accomplishment. The greater value came from taking on a difficult challenge together.
Events like HYROX provide military members with another avenue to build physical readiness, mental resilience and team cohesion outside traditional military training. They encourage members to find their limits – and then continue working when they reach them. Whether on the competition floor or during an operational mission, the principle remains remarkably similar: stay composed. Communicate. Keep moving. Finish as a team.
