Group ride in the lava fields

Ironman athlete in training

Mim, Debbie Asker and Phil honouring Madame Pele on the ride

And carrying the British flag

We had special team GB shirts with our names on

With Phil and Pro athlete Scott Neyedli at the Expo

Me and the girls at Bubba Gump where we had fries and salads for breakfast!

Jo, Min and Debbie at the expo with Normann Stadler and Pro Scott Neyedli

Day 5 in Kona (For photos of Day 5 in Kona click here)

TWe started early with a lovely bike ride. Again the ride was into the lava field. This time we rode 30km in and 30 back. Jo followed us in the big car and stopped occasionally to take photos (the results of which can be admired in the link below).

At the halfway point we stopped walked on our cycling shoes intoi the lava fields and honoured Madame Pele. In Hawaiian mythology,Pele is the goddess of, lightning, dance, volcanoes and violence. It is best to keep her as a friend and one of the ways to do this is to honour here in the lava fields. Normally you do this by building a little tower of Lava rocks and pooring gin over it. She loves gin. We had a special treat for her, we build a tower of lave rocks and poored PowerBar energy drink over it! I hope she liked it and that she will be friendly to us on Saturday!

For more photos of Day 5 in Kona click here.

The race is definitely coming closer so we are all tapering, taking all bikes and runs easy and spending a bit more time eating. After the bike ride we walked over to Lava Java but the place was heaing and there was no way we were going to get a table within a reasonable time, so we walked back and ended up at Bubba Gump. We got very nice seats overlooking the see and almost on the beach. Once we were seated we found out that they did not serve breakfast and we were given the lunch menu... Hmm, Deep fried shrimp, fries, burgers??? Not the breakfast that I was expecting but we ordered some salads and fries and enjoyed the location!

We then slowly walked back to the expo, had a good browse, met up with some people and Jo and Mim got themselves some underpants. On Thursday morning there always is an underpants run where a bunch of runners gather and run through Kona in their underpants.

In the afternoon we spent a bit of time in the VIP area downloading songs and lyrics for the PowerBar breakfast where Jo will sing and Tauny will play guitar tomorrow. Tauny and Jo rehearsed a few songs and it looks like the many hours of preparation (not!) have paid off.

Finally on Wednesday night Jo and I went to the Aloha reception. Drinks and great food at a beautiful beachfront location. Here we saw Zibi, who had just arrived from Germany. It was great to meet up and chat to a lot of people some of which I had not seen since last year in Kona. After the reception we went for a coffee at the Hula Bean and caught up with Phil Zibi and a bit later Rob Walker who works for Channel 4 and BBC joined us with his cameraman.

We did not have a late night because there is more to come: tomorrow is a big day with the PowerBar breakfast, the Nutrition Panel at the Expo and I have to say a few words at the massive pasta party.