Well that was hot.
The temperature during the ErgoMarathon is normally +5…+10degC, which is optimal for the long distance race. However, this year was surprisingly warm with +20deg C! When we saw the forecast we decided to move all ergs from inside the tent venue to the outside terrace. A good decision since the tent would have been way too hot in the sunshine. Still outside it was also quite warm which impacted the racing times: the half marathon results were about 2-3minutes and full marathon about 3-4 minutes slower than normal. Despite of the warm weather two rowers managed to break the Finnish national records. No world records were broken this year. The results are here.
Some competitors went swimming in the Tuusula lake, right next to the race venue. Others had a sauna and a beer before swimming. Some went to check out the new Coastal 2X of the rowing club.
What is the ErgoMarathon? And who is it for?
In Finland we have four national indoor championship events (500m, 2km, 10km, and the marathon) and the ErgoMarathon as the 4th event always finishes the indoor season. The ErgoMarathon is arranged by the Keravan Urheilijat rowing association, and we at Quiske are active within the club.
The ErgoMarathon event is open, and we hope to get even more people to join from other countries, too. The marathon is an extreme distance and it helps to do it in a crowd of likeminded people. Also 100km and 24h races can be organized at the event, whenever someone requests it. It is possible to welcome up to 100 rowers, the tent fits about 25 ergs and 4 racing starts fit within one day.
Most of the current rowers belong to the master category. The youngest rower was 16years and oldest over 75years.
Why dynamic and static in the same race??
The Finnish summer is short and sweet and rowers need to adapt to on-water rowing as soon as possible when winter is over. The best way to do that is to use dynamic indoor rowers instead of static during the spring time. This is the main reason why the dynamic alternative was added as an alternative on the ErgoMarathon.
We have done quite much testing of all three erg types, and have determined that for sessions of 60minutes or longer, difference in time between static C2 and dynamic (slides or RP3) is 1%. So we add 1% to the dynamic time results to make the results comparable. Maybe this is the first time ever that Concept2, Concept2 on slides, and RP3 ergs have all been used side by side in the same event.
We’re certainly not fussy, and also brought a ski-erg for one competitor who wanted to ski the half marathon 😊. And the ski erg competitor, Tony, broke the Finnish record, not bad in the heat. At the same time he was overseeing the half marathon his son was rowing on the RP3 in front of him.
ErgoMarathon 2020?
With a newly built spacious tent next to a fabulous beer terrace by a lake (with sauna) we think we have the best place in the world for this event, it doesn’t matter if it is raining, snowing or even if the sun shining. Now we want to grow the event to create the best event for extreme distance erging. We want it to be a place for people to meet and share ideas too and hope to get many more international rowers to join in the future. Welcome to Finland!
...and finally some words about technique
Good technique is even more important during long distance sessions. Some of the competitors at the ErgoMarathon had been training this winter by using the Quiske Virtual Coach. We are really proud of everyone who first of all managed to complete the race but especially of those who did so with good technique throughout the race all the way to the final sprint :-) The Virtual Coach promotes technique which also makes a boat on water faster, so we think there will be some quite fast Finnish boats at the upcoming races!
Ps. Read what World Rowing wrote about the event here