Ergo-Marathon
Rules

We will have a maximum of 40 ergometers on location in the Hamburg HafenCity. When all starter places are booked, all other participants will be placed on a waiting list and will move forward as soon as a seat is free. It is STRONGLY recommended to register immediately after registration starts in order to secure your starter place. In general all starter places are quickly taken within hours.

This only applies to the on-site competition and not for the online events.

The Ergo-Marathon may also be done with two or four-person teams as a relay. However, the individual distances for the relay participants will be as follows:

2-person relay:

• 1st participant: 21,097 meters
• 2nd participant: 21,097 meters

4-person relay (total 42,097 meters):

• 1st participant: 21,097 meters
• 2nd participant: 10,000 meters
• 3rd participant: 6,000 meters
• 4th participant: 5,000 meters

This method ensures that all taken times comply to the C2 world rankings.

The marathon distance is strenuous and very demanding. Only if you train consistently and regularly will you be able to complete this event safely. Please register only if you are sure that you can prepare yourself well enough. As we only offer a limited number of starter places and these participants need time to prepare, we please ask participants to register when they are completely confident on doing the marathon. I will be happy to advise you in advance if you are in doubt.

Regardless of whether you are male or female, young or old, light or heavyweight - the unique Alster Ergo-Cup® rating system asseses everyone on an equal and fair basis in the overall rating. The trick is that your actual achievements will be pitted against your theoretical chances. In the end, everyone will be competing against each other, fair and square!

In order to do that, competitors will initially be alocated to one of the existing Concept2 categories based on age, gender and weight. For several years now Concept2 has recorded all world record times in each category and marathon distances. These official times will serve as your individual reference time.

How does this work?

Competitor 1: female, lightweight, 33 years

C2 marathon world record = 2:53:21.0 min
personal time = 3:10:38.0 min
Our balanced result: competitor 1 is 9.97 % slower than the world record holder.

Competitor 2: male, heavyweight, 29 years

C2 marathon world record = 2:21:08.7 min
personal time = 2:49:59.0 min
Our balanced result: competitor 2 is 20.43% slower than the world record holder.

How do we compare the results?

Although competitor 2 personal time is much faster, the deviation from his C2 reference time is still a great deal higher than that of competitor 1. This means that the younger male athlete has only achieved a mediocre result within his peer group. And eventhough the older female athlete was practically slower on the erg, she won because her deviation from the actual world record was much less.

Results with Relay teams:

Since the sections of both relays (2 and 4) are specified, each starter competes against the world record time in his distance depending on gender, weight and age.

The traditional offline event will be at:

Kehrwieder 5
20457 Hamburg

The Online events:
As all participants will be competing online, it is up to you where you physically finish all the races.

We divide competitors basically into two classes: light- and heavy-weight. The dividing line between light and heavy is 61.5 kilos for women and 75 kilos for men (including sports clothing).

Competitors will be divided into age groups based on the world ranking lists of Concept2. Decisive is the age at the time of the race:

The age categories will be:

12 and under
13-14
15-16
17-18
19-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70-79
80-89
90-99
100+

For the offline events we will be offering modern Concept2 ergometers for all participants.

Each participant can individually select his or her air flap setting (Concept2) or resistance settings on the ergometer for each individual race.

The marathon distance will be entered in the display settings. All Participants will complete the whole distance until their setting reaches zero.

You may can eat and drink as much as you like. Please bring your own food, you may organize assistants who are allowed to provide you with drink or food, but are not allowed to administer them directly. The assistants must take care not to hinder other participants or put you in advantage to others. Otherwise the race management will issue appropriate warnings or even time penalties.

Individual starters and relay teams will generally be judged separately. The winner of the individual evaluation is the one who comes closest to his reference time in percentage terms (see evaluation system).

Relay: We will take the average of all time deviations within race sections to determine the correct outcome of the relay races.

Hamburg event:

• Single starter: 50,- EUR (including participant T-shirt)
• 2-person relay: 25,- EUR / p.P
• 4-person relay: 12,50 EUR / p.P

On-line event:

• Single starter: 9,- EUR
• 2-person relay: 7,- EUR / p.P
• 4-person relay: 5,50 EUR / p.P.

The organizer of the Alster Ergo-Cup® cannot accept any liability for personal injury of any sort. You may therefore only participate if your general physical and health condition is up to the extreme physical strain during the Ergo-Marathon. With your registration and signature you will comply to the above physical requirements.