When #TeamHAIX FireFit Championships competitor Katie Ross heard her name called as the winner of the 2025 Peter Reed Award, it was a full-circle moment for her. The honor not only signified the athletic and mental excellence she showed in the competition, but it was also named after her mentor, FireFit legend Peter “Zeus” Reed.

“He’s the one that got me into it,” Ross said. “It was really cool to win his award because I wouldn’t even know about the sport without him.”

The award would not have come at a more impactful moment for Ross. Her 2025 success was the result of her mental and physical work overcoming a diagnosis that forced her to redefine what it took to be a competitor.

From FireFit Rookie to World Record Holder

When Ross started as a rookie firefighter in Brampton, Ontario in 2019, she ran the FireFit course as a matter of tradition, never imagining it would become her passion. As she climbed, hoisted, and dragged her heavy equipment across the course, her instructor, Zeus, saw a champion waiting to emerge. He urged her to compete, sending her to her first team event and then on to Ottawa for her first solo race.

“I fell in love with the challenge,” Ross said. “I knew that I could do more on the course; I just needed time and practice.”

That practice became her life. From that moment on, she worked to develop a competitor’s mindset around everything from exercise to nutrition to sleep. Her goal was greatness: from the very beginning she had her sights set on world records. And in time, she delivered.

“Last year was huge because I was the first female to break 1:50 and I hit 1:40,” Ross said. “Nothing was going to stop me.”

When the Body Fights Back

Just as Ross was reaching her peak, she began feeling mysterious pains in her joints— first as an annoyance, then a daily obstacle. “All winter I was going through physio and getting testing done,” she said. “I just thought it was tendinitis.”

After she visited a specialist in spring of 2025 and underwent an MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound, Ross learned that she had a type of arthritis, likely linked to an autoimmune disease. Around that time her life went from training six times a week to having difficulty with regular tasks.

“You wake up one morning and you can’t walk because it hurts so bad,” she said. “It just changes everything. I had to pull out of a lot of races. Every time I did try to practice, I couldn’t because it would leave me in more pain,”

Eventually, she also had to take time off the firetruck—a difficult decision for someone who thrives on the camaraderie and encouragement of her crew. “When you don’t trust your joints, it’s not fun,” she said. “Even at work, I was starting to feel like I wasn’t able to do my job properly, never mind racing.”work, I was starting to feel like I wasn’t able to do my job properly, never mind racing.” Ross had to wear a cast on her foot for two and a half weeks to give her ankle a chance to recover from the stress of training. But rather than quit, Ross used this

Ross had to wear a cast on her foot for two and a half weeks to give her ankle a chance to recover from the stress of training. But rather than quit, Ross used this period of uncertainty to exercise the few things within her control.

Rebuilding Physically and Mentally

For Ross, healing meant finding new kinds of strength. She changed her diet, embracing an autoimmune plan, and turned her focus inward toward mindset, not just muscle.

Helping her along this journey was her partner, firefighter Jay Woodford.

“Jay is really big on books,” she said. “So, like sports psychology books and mindset, and I literally just dove into those all summer. Having someone by your side really believing that you’ve already done the work and that it will get better—that was huge.”

With guides like Endure and The Mindful Athlete as her training manuals, Ross rebuilt her mental resilience one page at a time.

Comeback at Canadian National

Once her ankle healed, Ross traded her cast for a pair of HAIX® Fire Eagle Extreme boots and headed back to the course to test herself. She practiced with her team in August and began to feel her mental conditioning pay off. In September, Ross attended the Canadian National Competition—and with only a handful of practices—ran a 1:46 and then a 1:43 in the finals. Her blazing fast time helped her team bring home the gold medal win in the mixed relay race.

“I was really happy because I feel like my training paid off,” Ross said. “I knew that I had to put time into the sport to be able to perform on muscle memory. And I think that’s why I was able to be successful at the Canadian Nationals.”

That perseverance on the course and off are what led her back to the podium, and ultimately, to the Peter “Zeus” Reed Award.

Future Plans and a New Mindset

Today, Ross is balancing recovery with her role as a firefighter and live fire instructor—the first female in that position at Brampton Fire. In this role she’s getting to mentor others, just as Zeus once mentored her.

As for her future plans, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a competitor like Katie Ross.

“Next year, I’m hoping that we find the root cause [of her illness] and that I’m able to compete fully all year chasing records,” Ross said. “And I still want to be super involved with the department and instructing.”

While her journey to recover isn’t done, it’s easy to see how the trials have strengthened Ross as both a competitor and as a human.  

“Normally my motto is ‘you work hard to get the results,’” Ross said. “But this year I really had to change my mindset. I had to really work on my mental game.”

Now, she says, when she gets set for a race her mind is centered on her love of the sport and the joy of competition.

“I do this because I love it,” she said. “I do this because I’m able to do it today.”