On the island

Came to the Isle of Wight yesterday to visit a friend of mine. The island is just off the south coast and is about the size of Singapore. However, there are far fewer people living here and there is a lot more open countryside (with bigger hills as well). The chalk cliff which go along much of the coast often yield fossils ranging from small trilobites to big dinosaurs.

Went for a run this morning with my much better half along the river that cuts through half of the island. There is a path which goes by the river which probably used to be a small railway line. A female runner joined the path a little bit behind us and started catching up. Eventually the other runner overtook us. I thought of upping the pace a bit but my better half decided that it was no point running hard especially as this was supposed to be a easy morning run. This allowed the other runner to open a gap in front.

Before long, the competitive instinct surfaced in my other half (probably warmed-up as well) who started to hold the gap constant. After a few minutes, we began to haul back the runner in front and pretty soon we were right behind here. There comes a point when you have to decide whether to overtake. This is when a multitude of factors go through your head - can I go past decisively, is this going to slow me down a few miles down the road, what happens if the runner hangs on, am I strong enough...

No doubt these thoughts went through the mind of my far better half. She decided to increase the pace and overtake the runner in front. There was no looking back and we left the other runner behind (later turned off the path). Once she got going, there was no stopping the other half. The original plan was to turn back after about 20 minutes but she decided to keep going till the end of the path (the next town) which we reached in just over 30 minutes.

In the end we did about 7 miles in around 62 minutes with the 2nd half around 1.5 minutes slower than the 1st half (nothing to chase and a bit of fatigue). Certain sections feel like you are going through a tunnel made from trees and there are places where we ran along long wooden bridges (like the old bridge next to power station in Klang, now sadly gone). Nice easy run for me, good solid run for the other half. Pretty good for someone who hasn't been running regularly over the past few months (and I don't mean me).

No photos from the run. Instead, say hi to Norton and Cleo, the two "children" who live with my friend on the island. If not for her colour, Cleo resembles Garfield (i.e. needs to be on a diet!).

Cleo & Norton

Location 51°N 1°W