A very chilly day in NYC that prompted Irvette van Blerk (South Africa)  to comment five minutes before the start, “I can’t feel my feet!” surprisingly brought a pair of fast men’s and women’s races. The NYC Half-Marathon is by no means a cupcake…the initial eight miles or so are over the undulating hills of Central Park, but once the athletes are realeased to Seventh Avenue and the West Side Highway, the pace goes nuts. In the women’s race, reigning ING  New York City Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat (Nike) contended over the Central Park miles with a group that included compatriot Caroline Rotich, former world cross-country champion Weknish Kidane, and America’s half-marathon recordholder Kara Goucher. With a steadily accelerating pace, the front group dwindled to four (Edna, Rotich, Goucher, American Shewarge Amare) at the ten mile mark, hit in 53:10. Rotich began to step on the gas, with only Edna keeping pace over the next two miles of 5:03 and 5:04. Rotich continued her surge, finally separating from Edna to open up 5 seconds at the 20K, and eight seconds at the finish (68:52 CR). Edna ran great, with a 69:00 effort that was a new PB and was also under the old course record. Edna’s husband and coach, Gilbert Koech, was happy with the result. “I didn’t know how Edna would handle the long flat stretch at the end of the race, but with 15:50 for the last 5K, we know things are going well. London is of course the big target for us this Spring.” Irvette came through the cold in spectacular fashion, dropping 13 seconds off the 71:09 PB she set last year in winning the South African national championship. Some prudent shopping for gloves and armwarmers at Niketown on Saturday helped save the day. Adriana Pirtea (ASICS/Romania) ran tough all day, hampered by a tight hamstring brought on by the cold. Shaking off fleeting thoughts of stopping to protect herself from further injury, Adriana pushed on and ran a very solid 72:03, good for 12th place. Her husband/coach, Jeremy Nelson, said after the race, “She’ll probably take a good break now and start shorter road racing in May. It’s been an intense start to the year with Osaka, Yokohama, and this race, but she’s run well in them.” Next home of our group was Fiona Docherty (ASICS, New Zealand), who knocked close to two minutes (!) off her PB, with a 72:49 for 14th place. “I’m delighted. London next month should be really exciting.” Yuri Kano Second Wind AC/MIzuno) had a rough day of it, completely understandable. Minutes before rhe start of the race, NYRR President Mary Wittenberg introduced Yuri to the field of runners and commented on the past week of devastation in Japan, and Yuri was greeted with a warm round of applause and cheers of support. Early on in the race, she had to stop to use a toilet, lost over a minute there, then after beginning to run again realized she’d left her gloves in the porta-potty. On a run Monday morning she thought about the past week. “I probably had some stress and fatigue from the past week in Japan. Every night going to sleep, we didn’t know if there’d be another earthquake, or what else might happen. I’m really happy Mary and the Road Runners invited me, but when I was warming up, I realized I didn’t feel very sharp.”