With the big race looming ever closer there's plenty of places to pick up information about what's going on in Kona. First and foremost is the Ironman Live website (www.ironmanlive.com) where Kevin Mackinnon will have his hands full all week keeping the news, interviews and so on flowing before he starts his all-day stint on Saturday evening (our time) for the live race commentary.

Another great resource this year is the dedicated Ironman site that Active.com have set up (ironman.active.com) where you can catch video interviews and other great snippets like their presentation of Normann Stadler's new Kuota Kween K (not sure about the name but that bike looks HOT).

The doyen of the online triathlon sites has to be Dan Empfield and his recently re-furbished Slowtwitch site (www.slowtwitch.com) has a regular flow of commentary and interviews, plus there's a lot of good stuff from the recent Interbike show that's worth reading to see what might be heading our way in 2008.

Tri247 has two or three of its regular contributors out in Kona as well and we hope to be bringing you some background updates on the GB contingent later in the week and after the race itself.

The final Ironman note for this update is that the WTC now has its own official Ironman Coffee - Kona has always been justly famous for its caffeine outlets; Java Lava being probably the best known - and so it's a probably good thing that caffeine has been taken off the prohibited drugs list! And, no, the coffee pictured here isn't the official stuff but some the Editor found in Quincy Market in Boston a couple of years ago. It's what he'll be needing on Sunday morning after an all-nighter following the Ironman!