Simon Ward has been in Kona reporting all week for Tri247. (You can read his pre-race updates here: part one, part two, part three), and now checks back in with his final update - the race!

Wow. We've just had another amazing day in Kona.

Craig Alexander ran his own race, slowly moving through the field to take an unassailable lead with 10 miles to go. And Chrissie Wellington dominated as she has done all year. Even an 11-minute break at 90k while she tried to fix her tyre did nothing to impede her. In fact it may even have recharged her batteries! She seems to have a knack of using adversity to her benefit instead of letting it affect her race. Either way it didn't alter the outcome other than reducing the eventual winning margin. The debate now is whether she would have smashed the long standing course record from 1992. Listening to Chrissie talk I think she'll savour the win for now and think about that later.

I did manage to catch up, and cheer for, a few of the GB athletes during the day. It is always very difficult to see and talk with everyone. Before the race athletes are focused on the event and afterwards they are spread out between massage, medical tent or still trying to finish.

Glynnis and Keith Greenhough were very cheery at 6am and looking forward to the day and I even chanced upon Glynnis as she made the final turn to the finish line at 9pm. She was still smiling as she trotted off into the night!

Declan Doyle was also very chatty in T2 before the start although it was difficult to tell if this was nerves or just "happy to be here" mode.

Dion Harrison exited T1 in a very high position in the age group race and had a solid day beating his previous PB by over an hour on his way to a sub 10 hour race. Tim Bishop and Stu Anderson were just in front of Dion with strong races and Steven Lord had a "shocker" of a run to post a 10hr 30 finish.

Chris Domoney was still smiling as he left T2 on his way to a strong 3hr38 marathon

Scott Neyedli didn't get much further than the first 10k of the bike before succumbing to a bout of sickness on the bike. Toby Radcliffe didn't make the start of the run and was lucky to even make the bike. Just minutes before the pro's exited the water his back tyre blew in T1, but smart work from the volunteers had it changed in less than 5 minutes.

Bella Comerford had a great race with a strong run, coming through to a 7th place finish. Afterwards Bella said "I'm over the moon with this placing as my goal was to finish in the top 10. Throughout the race I thought it might not be possible but kept my head together and dealt with the challenges. I was nervous coming into the race as I find hot conditions difficult but I feel that I conquered Hawaii! Next year I will be back and I believe I can improve on 7th place.

Fiancée Stephen Bayliss struggled to squeeze into the top 20. In his words, "after a good swim I had an average ride, but felt pretty wasted on the run with a very stiff back. I didn't have the usual spring in my step from other races this year. I came for the experience and thought I might have scraped a top 10. It was not to be on this occasion but I will be back fitter and stronger in 2009." It later transpired that Bayliss had been in hospital for three days a few weeks prior due to blood poisoning from contaminated food at their training base in Jeju, Korea (Quick trivia question - which other UK athletes suffered from stomach bugs while training in Korea recently?). Two places in front of Stephen was our top male Pro finisher Paul Amey who I spotted running the last 400m with a pronounced limp.

Julie Harrison after many years of trying to get to Kona finally made it to the finish line in 13hrs 15 mins.

Scott Balfour (M60-64), was our highest placed age grouper finishing 10th in 11hrs57mins.

There were 45 GB athletes who qualified to race here and 40 made it to the finish line. Overall it was a great day to round off a good week and one which I'm sure that as country we will build on in the future. The success of Chrissie, Bella and Stephen in 2008 must surely inspire others to follow in their footsteps. If I didn't mention you in any of my reports I apologise for not bumping in to you during the week.

So until next year it's goodbye from Kona.

Mahalo