c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $regex = '(?xms) ((.) \2{2,})';
 ;;
 for my $s (qw(aeiou aeeiou aeiiiou aeioooou)) {
   print qq{match: captured '$1'} if $s =~ $regex;
   }
"
match: captured 'iii'
match: captured 'oooo'