Ashley Estwanik admits her record-breaking exploits at last weekend’s United Airlines New York City Half-Marathon came as a surprise.

The island’s top female runner shaved more than a minute off of her own women’s national half-marathon record after crossing the line in 1hr 18min 19sec despite going into the event somewhat undercooked.

“I kind of went in not really knowing how I was going to do just based on the fact I’m running about half the mileage I have run previously because of my Achilles injury last summer,” Estwanik said. “I have been doing a lot more cycling and swimming, so it was probably at least half the mileage I would normally do.”

Running among three male training partners, Estwanik maintained a pace under six minutes per mile en route claiming age group honours, sixteenth among the women’s field and 162nd overall.

“I ran with three guys I have been training with a bit and two of the three said we are going to all start together and run 6:05, which is under 1:20 pace and just see what we can do,” Estwanik said.

“We didn’t have a very good starting position so the first mile was slow because we were weaving through people and then after that every single mile was under six minute pace and we all felt good.

“I was hoping to just run under 1:20 and once I realised I only had five miles to go I was thinking ‘okay, if I keep this up and I don’t feel like I’m dying, I should be able to run well under 1:20’, and then all of a sudden I was like ‘this is going to be under 1:19’.

“It was a really good day and everything kind of fell into place at the right time, which is nice when that happens.”

Estwanik thrived in the near-frigid conditions which she has taken a liking to.

“Even though I am a solid Bermudian and a summer girl I think running in the cold is nice and I enjoy running in the cold,” she said.

“It’s definitely a lot easier to get the air in and out when it’s colder and dry. Here, it’s just so much more difficult to run in the humidity, which definitely adds a lot more time to your runs.”

This year was the 38-year-old runner’s third appearance in the 13.1 mile race.

“It’s definitely a privilege to compete at this event and the course is way flatter than in Bermuda,” she said. “It was really fun to go and represent Bermuda abroad like that and really nice running with people I knew.”