New York City is buzzing today as everything is set for tomorrow morning NYC Half-Marathon. In five years, the race has quickly jumped to top status, and a pair of loaded men’s and women’s fields will toe the line tomorrow morning for the run from Central Park to Battersea Park. Tomorrow is forecast to be somewhat cold (mid- to upper-30s), perhaps warming a bit to lower- to mid-40s by the finish; hopefully, the breezes of this morning will not return. Boulder Wave has a dynamic group of women set for tomorrow’s combat. 2010 ING New York City Marathon champ Edna Kiplagat (Kenya/Nike) heads the invited field. Sunday will be Edna’s first international race as a Nike athlete since signing a three-year sponsorship deal with the company this winter. Yuri Kano (Japan/Second Wind AC/Mizuno) comes in off last Sunday’s cancelled Nagoya marathon as the reigning Sapporo Half-Marathon Champion. Yuri has never finished lower than 4th in her three times to run New York’s half. Adriana Pirtea (Romania/ASICS) brings a 69:59 PB and has been in fine shape after her 7th place in Osaka in January, including an impressive 25K piece while pacing last month’s Yokohama Women’s Marathon. Irvette van Blerk (South Africa/adidas) tore up the South African Half-Marathon Championships last summer to win in 71:09 at only age 23. And Fiona Docherty (New Zealand/ASICS), who is now in serious contention to make New Zealand’s 2012 Olympic team, looks to make a big improvement on her 74:20 PB, four weeks out from her appearance at next month’s Virgin London Marathon. Two of our men were set with invitations for tomorrow’s race, but Justin Young pulled out with knee problems, while Gilbert Koech focuses his energy on helping Edna’s final preparation. The New York Road Runners TV station will have a live broadcast of the race, beginning 7:30 a.m. EDT, Sunday, April 20th.
In Training
to be World Class
