The penultimate day of the running festival on 5 June builds toward the weekend finale. The Isle of Wight Festival of Running programme on this Friday runs active events and social runs from West Wight Sports and Community Centre in Freshwater, and the routes tend to be the most relaxed of the week: people warming up for the Saturday events or completing a week of running at a pace that reflects the end of a good five days.
Friday of the festival week is also when visitors who have come specifically for the Saturday Tapnell 10k or Sunday Needles Half Marathon often arrive, which gives the Friday social runs a mix of festival veterans and newcomers exploring the west Wight for the first time. The routes cover the Colwell Bay shoreline and the inland paths through the Yarmouth and Freshwater areas, giving arriving runners a useful preview of the landscape they will race through the following days.
Event details at isleofwightfestivalofrunning.co.uk. More sport events on the Isle of Wight through the summer.