“For the First Month, It Was Only the SkiErg”—How Carolyn Watkins Finished 4th in HYROX North America (#33)

John Paton (0:00)

I'm here today with Carolyn Watkins. Now, Carolyn finished fourth place in the HYROX North America Regional Championships, an incredible result. Carolyn, welcome to the show.

Carolyn Watkins (0:10)

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

John Paton (0:13)

So Carolyn, walk us through the race. So fourth place is an incredible result. What were the hardest parts of the race, and what parts do you feel like this is going incredibly well? How did the race feel for you overall?

Carolyn Watkins (0:23)

Yeah, so honestly, I think the hardest part was honestly before the race.

I actually just came off a big injury in the fall. So I wasn't training or I should say I wasn't running too much in the fall. And took like two months away, came back, had a pretty rough training block leading into Washington, DC. That ultimately two weeks before I was able to race for the first time in months in Vegas. And I had a really bad race there. So I think the hardest part for me about the DC race was getting there, not feeling super confident in myself and like not really having much of an idea of how it was going to go. And then once I like actually got into the race, the hardest part for me, anyone who was watching knows was the sleds. I've always struggled with those. They're something I definitely need to continue to work on. And things that went well, definitely the running. That's my favorite part of the race. That's definitely my strength. And I think just overall like energy management, if that makes sense. So I feel like I did a very good job of doing the right amount of effort on each of the stations and conserving the perfect amount of energy to be very fatigued going to the wall balls, but not too fatigued that I couldn't finish the race off strong.

John Paton (1:23)

Yeah, okay. So I think it's super interesting that you say you didn't have a great preparation going in, because obviously like fourth place is a great result. Or let me ask you this way, how did you feel about the fourth place result? Are you satisfied or do you feel like you could have gone even better?

Carolyn Watkins (1:36)

So it was funny because I was so satisfied the second I finished. Right when I finished the race, I was very excited about it. And then you let those like 12 seconds that I missed third place, sit with you for a little bit, and then you get a little bit more frustrated. But then you think about it and like, if I'd finished in any other placement, I'd have found something to be like picky about or something to be upset about. So overall, super happy with fourth place. But of course, I'm going to think about like the battle Morgan and I ended up having at the end, where I could have picked up a few more seconds elsewhere in the race. So overall satisfied, but also learned some things from that definitely.

John Paton (2:10)

Okay.

So you're thinking about those 12 seconds. Yeah. So it was a very close finish between you and Morgan who ended up finishing in third. So Carolyn, as you just kind of think about your future in HYROX, I imagine you've been dwelling on this. You've seen the success at the elite level now. What's kind of your goal? What's your aspiration? Are you dreaming about what you can achieve?

Carolyn Watkins (2:28)

I would say yes and no.

I wouldn't say that I'm putting my entire life on hold for it, but I would say that it's something that I'm going to work really hard to become elite in. And I want to continue to appear on the elite stage and kind of being able to perform the way that I did coming off of, like I said, a kind of a rough training block leading up to it, has given me a lot of confidence in believing that I can continue to perform on the elite stage. So I guess my goal is to continue to be there and to continue to be my best. But yeah, again, it's not the only thing that I have going on.

John Paton (3:00)

Yeah, yeah, you mentioned beforehand, you're also a PhD student in your fifth year of your PhD. So imagine that takes a tremendous amount of your time.

Carolyn Watkins (3:06)

It takes up quite a bit of my time, yes.

John Paton (3:08)

So realistically, so with the PhD that you're pursuing, how much time do you have in your week to be training for HYROX? What does it actually look like for you in terms of trying to fit things in at the moment?