June Challenges: Summer Solstice & Blue Moon Row

Storm Petrel · Post by **Storm Petrel** » May 24th, 2007, 6:39 pm

Four weeks 'til the solstice and slightly over five weeks 'til the blue moon.

From pg. 5 of C2's latest newsletter:

The 5th Annual Summer Solstice Row will take place on Thursday, June 21, 2007. On that date, the longest day of the year, we challenge you to row 21,000 meters, on the water or on the indoor rower, to celebrate the solstice. The meters can be accrued from several workouts throughout the day or from one long workout. While you’re at it, you may just as well row an additional 97 meters and make it an official half-marathon of 21,097 meters! The half-marathon does have to be rowed in one sitting. Small breaks are allowed, but the rest time needs to be included in the final time for ranking.

The 3rd Annual Blue Moon Row will take place on June 30, 2007. On that day, we challenge you to row TWICE in one day, with each row being at least 5000 meters in length. As with the Solstice Row, we will allow on-water meters for this event.

Since we announced the 1st Blue Moon Row in 2004 several customers have written to let us know that there are two different definitions of “blue moon.” The first definition of a blue moon is when a full moon occurs twice in one month. In this case, the second full moon is called a blue moon. The second definition is when there are four full moons in one season, and when this occurs, the third full moon is the blue moon. Indeed, it appears that the second definition is the correct one—though the first definition has become more widely known. We have the first definition to thank for this summer’s Blue Moon Row.

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » May 24th, 2007, 10:10 pm

Interesting. Thanks for the information. I will look forward to those.

The American Heritage Dictionary shows both definitions.
blue moon
1. The third full moon in a three-month calendrical season that has four full moons.
2. The second of two full moons occurring in the same month.

I've usually heard the second definition too and hadn't heard of the first one before. It seems if three month periods were used, they would be the ones between solstices rather than 3 calendar months but oh well.