Palmer appeared almost relieved to have left the troubles of the quake aftermath behind her, running with some ease to finish in a record time of 1hr 19min 56sec, bettering the time established by Kirsty Morris in 2007 by 31sec.
Her time was around the time she estimated she would do, despite the lack of preparation.
"It's been a pretty stressful week," she said, referring to the earthquake.
"It's been horrible. Not much sleep and just really on edge all week. There were a few things broken in the house, but the house is still standing, so that's good."
Palmer (26), a physical education teacher, was content with her run yesterday, but plans a break before building up for track and field competition over the summer months.
Palmer won the half-marathon title last year in 1hr 23min, and was happy to be well clear of that time and pleased she overcame her tendency to go too fast at the start.
"That last kilometre is just a killer," she said of her run around Back Beach, and having to hold out Michelle Hopkins, who finished second in 1hr 20min 26sec, with Morris third in 1hr 23min 43sec.
Luke Hurring (Christchurch) backed up his success in last month's Clyde to Alexandra road race with victory in the open men's section of the half-marathon.
Hurring (25), a customer service representative, missed an opportunity to race in last weekend's cancelled national road championships.
Despite not having any training under his belt, he decided to see how it went.
"It was a good experiment to see how good I'd go, taking 10km training into a half-marathon," Hurring said.
Hurring, who finished runner-up in the Christchurch marathon at Queens Birthday weekend in 2hr 25min, plans to spend the summer focused on track events with an eye to contesting another marathon.
He finished yesterday's half-marathon in 1hr 8min 22sec, with Tony Payne second with a personal best time of 1hr 10min 12sec and Steven McKinstry third in 1hr 13min 14sec.
