From Boardrooms to Burpees: How Maria Colacurcio Gets It Done

The CEO and mother of seven talks pre-dawn weightlifting, protein muffins and becoming a world champion in her forties.

Colacurcio, alongside her daughter, Sofia, gets some love from her bernadoodle, Kona.

Maria Colacurcio is the kind of woman who makes the phrase we rise by lifting others her life’s work. She’s the friend who will cheer for you when you’re crushing it, hold space when you’re falling apart, and climb into the ditch to help you find your way out.

Maria, 48, is the CEO of Syndio, a software company working to close pay gaps in workplaces. We first met years ago when I was a Wall Street Journal reporter interviewing her for a story. It didn’t take us long to realize we had more in common than a shared interest in equity. We were both mothers raising kids in a blended family, both late bloomers in competitive sports, and the more we talked, the more we clicked. We stayed in touch over the years, and eventually, I felt safe enough to open up about my own pay-equity struggles.

Maria, however, is more than just a champion for fairness—she’s a wife, a mother of seven (yes, seven!) kids, and an accomplished and devoted athlete. She is a 5’4” powerhouse who started competing in HYROX races after meeting her husband, Brandon, a gym owner and fitness coach. For the uninitiated, HYROX is a grueling combination of running and functional fitness—a sport that doesn’t just test your body but your grit. And Maria? She’s not just competing; she’s winning.

Earlier this year, Maria and Brandon entered the HYROX World Championships in Nice, France, where they competed as a doubles team, placing first in the US and fifth in the world. (How’s that for couple goals?) And two years ago, she took home a World Championship of her own in the women’s 45-to-49 age group.

To get those kinds of results, her mornings start before dawn, when most of us are still hitting snooze. Six days a week, she’s up at 5 a.m., lifting heavy and moving with purpose. Here’s a peek at one of her recent workouts:

Maria’s Morning Routine
(After warmup and stretching)

• Deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps

• Hip Thrusts: 4 sets of 10 reps

• Single-arm Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets of 6–8 reps

• AMRAP Deadlifts: As many reps as possible at 50 percent of 1RM (a one-repetition maximum is the heaviest she can lift in a single rep)

• Dumbbell Walking Lunges: 25 meters with 30 pounds in each hand

After her hour-long workout, she shifts gears—making a big, protein-intensive family breakfast (“I’m Italian,” she says, explaining her love of feeding big broods). Then she heads to the office—sometimes at home, other days at the office in Bellevue—to lead her 150-person company.

Maria, Brandon and their crew (plus dog Ollie)

We’ve all heard that line, I don’t know how she does it. But with Maria, I mean it. 

When I caught up with her last week, fresh from her latest competition in Chicago, she radiated that post-race mix of exhaustion and pride. HYROX competitions aren’t for the faint of heart. They combine eight workout stations with one-kilometer runs. We’re talking 1,000 meters on a ski erg, sled pushes and pulls, sandbag lunges, and wall balls (among other things)—a relentless test of physical and mental endurance.

Why does she do it? At its core, she says, HYROX is the ultimate test of human capacity. “I don’t ever want to be in a position where I’m afraid of failure,” she says.

Facing failure in HYROX has made her less afraid of perceived limits in real life–-for instance, her decision to nab the job of CEO. “If you don’t go for things that are bigger than what you think you can do, you’re never going to get anywhere.”

Maria’s reflections from the race–-where she earned first place berth to the World Championships next June in Chicago–-were nothing short of inspiring. Here were some of her memorable moments:

200-METER FARMERS CARRY

My husband has been training me–this is one of my worst stations. He said, ‘You have to try and go unbroken!’ [i.e. not drop the two 52-pound kettlebells]. Because the minute you set it down and pick it back up, it feels even heavier. In my last race, I set it down twice. He’s screaming on the sidelines, because he can tell I’ve got it in me. It was this weird 200 meters where you had to go around a corner, but once I did, I had 50 meters to go. And then I knew it, I thought, ‘I can do this.’ It was the first time I ever did it [without dropping the weights].

TIME: 1 minute 57 seconds 

SLED PULL

This one is one of the hardest stations for me, I still have trauma from the 11-minute sled pull I had done once in New York where it was just not moving. This one was 4 minutes and 30 seconds–the fastest I’ve ever done. I pulled it and it just felt. . . smooth. I’ve been training a lot in my back, my middle back.

TIME: 4 minutes 28 seconds

100M SANDBAG LUNGES 

This one was just OK. I feel like because my run times improved, this was one of the stations that suffered. That’s the thing with HYROX – it’s always this dance, this balance. There’s things you improve, but then there’s always things you have to work on.

TIME: 4 minutes 48 seconds

***

Overall rank: 19 out of 70 total women across all age categories in the PRO race

In the 45 to 49 age group for women: 1st, qualifying for World’s.

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Maria reminds me of this truth: Grit is about showing up—again and again—with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to your values.

When I think of her, I think about what’s possible when we stop asking if we can do it all and start asking why it matters.

So here’s to Maria: an athlete, a leader, and a friend. And here’s to all the women out there finding their own way to defy gravity.