How to set up your own fitness event

Choose the format

Decide what athletes do, how it is scored and how they are ranked.

Start from what your athletes train for. Runs and stations in a fixed order (a HYROX-style sim) suit hybrid racers; a few short workouts scored for time or reps suit a CrossFit crowd; timed blocks shared by a pair suit beginners and social athletes.

Write the format down as a list of segments: what each one is, the distance or reps, any time cap, and how it is scored (time, reps, calories, metres). Then decide how the overall ranking works: fastest total time, highest total score, or points for placing in each workout.

On HRP you can build your own format: any stations in any order, each scored by time, reps, calories, metres or watts, ranked by total time, total score or points. See how it works

Pick a date and a venue

Six to ten weeks out, on a morning when the floor can close.

Give people six to ten weeks to book and train. Check the local race and competition calendar so you are not up against a big event your athletes are already doing.

The venue sets your numbers: how many lanes of each piece of kit you have decides how many athletes can start together. A gym floor works for most formats; a sports hall or car park gives you room for a run loop.

Plan the floor and the kit

One lane per station per athlete racing at once, plus spares.

Lay stations out in order so athletes move in one direction, with a marked start, finish and any run loop. Your slowest station to clear (often a sled or an erg) sets how big each wave can be.

List the kit per station and per category (weights for men and women, Rx and Scaled), and keep spares of anything that breaks: wall balls, a second sled, a spare rower.

Set categories and prices

Keep categories simple; price per athlete to cover the day.

Most events need men's and women's categories, a beginner and an advanced division (Open and Pro, or Scaled and Rx), and team options if your format suits pairs or relays. A junior category on a shorter course brings families in.

Price per athlete to cover kit, judges, the venue and prizes, with a members' price if you want to reward regulars. Team places are usually priced per person.

HRP lets one event carry several categories, each with its own course, price and leaderboard. See how it works

Open bookings and take payment

Sell places online so you know your numbers before the day.

Online booking means you see who is coming, who has paid and how full each wave is, and nobody turns up expecting a place that does not exist. Share one link on social, in your app and by email.

Ask for what you need at booking: category, team members, emergency contact and anything for your insurance.

On HRP athletes book and pay on your event page, with members' prices and team places, and the money goes straight into your own Stripe account. See how it works

Collect waivers

Every athlete signs before they race, including both halves of a pair.

A liability waiver protects you and makes the risks clear to athletes. Collect it at booking, not on a clipboard at the door. Under-18s need a parent or guardian to sign; in a team, every member signs their own.

Keep the signed copies with the booking so you can find them if you ever need to.

HRP takes the waiver as part of booking: a tick-box, or a typed-name signature with a guardian for under-18s. See how it works

Recruit and brief judges

One judge per two or three stations, plus a start and finish.

Judges check movement standards, count reps and record each athlete's time or score. Brief them on the standards for their stations, what a no-rep looks like and what to do if someone stops.

Give every judge the same simple tool so results do not depend on collecting and typing up paper sheets.

Time and score every athlete

Every segment recorded live, not just a finish time.

Athletes come back for their breakdown: each segment's time or score and how they compare with the field. Recording every segment as it happens gives you that without anyone typing results up afterwards.

For a small field, judges with phones are enough. For hundreds of athletes over a long course, chip timing can sit alongside.

On HRP each judge opens a link on their own phone, taps each athlete through or enters their reps, calories or metres. No accounts, no hardware, and it keeps working offline. See how it works

Put a live leaderboard on a screen

Spectators stay when they can follow the race.

A screen showing who is where and who is on for a PB makes it an event for everyone in the room, not just the people racing. Any TV with a browser will do.

Publish results the same day and book the next one

Results within an hour; the next date while the room is buzzing.

Publish results as soon as the last athlete finishes. Athletes share their breakdown that evening; a week later nobody looks.

Then announce the next date. The best time to sell the next event is the afternoon of this one.

HRP publishes results from the timing in one click, gives every athlete a full breakdown and share cards, and copies your categories and waves into the next event. See how it works