Every athlete has a pattern. We found five.
It's not random, and it's not infinite — the same handful of patterns keep showing up, race after race. Knowing yours helps you race smarter, and helps you find a partner who complements it, not just matches your pace.
Why this matters for doubles
You can split the stations. You can't split the runs.
In hybrid competition doubles, you and your partner can divide the stations between you however you like — but every run is shared, and the team only moves as fast as whichever of you is slower that lap. That one rule is why these patterns matter: your partner's strengths can cover your weak stations, but nobody can run a leg for you. Recognising your own pattern, and your partner's, does most of the rest.
The Pacemaker
A strong, steady runner. Splits stay close across every leg; station times are ordinary, nothing standout either way.
A station specialist — you take on more of the running volume, they strip sled and carry time off both your legs.
The Anchor
Strong, sometimes dominant, on the equipment — sled, ski erg, carries, wall balls. Running is where the time goes back.
A Pacemaker whose run pace you can actually hold. The gap can't be minutes, or the runs undo everything you saved on stations.
The Steady Hand
No big strengths, no big weaknesses. Solid everywhere, and the splits tend to move together race after race.
Almost anyone — which makes you a great first doubles partner for someone racing HYROX or TRYKA for the first time.
The Fast Starter
Quick out of the corral, strong opening kilometres — and the back half of the race is where the time gets given back.
Someone who paces the middle of the race for both of you — happy to hold you back early so you're not paying for it at station six.
The Closer
Conservative opening, deliberately — and the second half of the race is genuinely faster than the first.
A Fast Starter, if you can agree a shared plan: you cover their fade, they cover your slow start, and the average comes out ahead.
One more thing splits don't show
What you're racing for.
Two athletes with an identical race shape can want completely different things from the same event — one's chasing a PB, the other's there for the day out with friends. That matters just as much as pace, especially at gym SIM events where the field is a genuine mix of both. It's why HyPair matches on goal as well as pace — not just how you race, but why.
Where this goes next
Today, patterns we recognise. Eventually, patterns we can measure.
Right now, race styles are descriptive — a way to think about your own splits, not a score the app assigns you. As more athletes log full race results in HyPair, we're exploring whether real split data can identify these patterns directly, and whether pairing complementary styles — not just matching pace — produces doubles pairs that actually race better together. If it works, it becomes part of how HyPair matches you. If it doesn't tell us anything pace alone doesn't, we'll say so.
Which one are you?
Download HyPair and match by pace, goal, and the race you're actually entering.
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