It has been 15 years since one of America’s darkest days, when acts of terror brought the country and most of the free world to a standstill on September 11, 2001.
Corbin joined daughter Lucy (20), who is spending a semester at the University of Otago, to help her run her first distance over 12km.
An internal medicine physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Hospital, Corbin (49) remembers 9/11 as if it were yesterday.
Her three daughters, Lucy, Claire and Alice, were all 5 or under at the time — Clair was just a month old. Corbin had arranged for a nanny to care for the girls after she took on a new job directing the integrative medicine programme on September 17.
The nanny decided to arrive a few days earlier, on September 11.
Corbin, unaware of the attacks, opened the door to receive her nanny only to question why she looked as if she had seen a ghost.
"I opened the door and she stood there looking like she’d just seen a dead person and said ‘have you seen the news?’ Which I hadn’t."
Corbin quickly switched on the television and watched, horrified, as events unfolded.
"I have family in the New Jersey and New York area, and they all knew people who were working in the towers at the time and their town was heavily impacted, losing 10 or so neighbours."
One of her cousins owned an upmarket nightclub right across the street from where a building was turned into a temporary morgue.
"She thought she’d never recover but is time can be a great healer," Corbin said.
Corbin said she remembered all too well how eerily quiet it was in the days that followed the attacks.
"No planes were flying and everyone was in a state of shock."
Such was the impact on the American way of life that Corbin often wonders how the families of the victims are coping.
"It is far different from people who die from heart attacks, traffic accidents, etc, and while I still feel a sense of sadness when people loose a loved one, they don’t get the attention people who were impacted by 9/11 do."
As for her running Corbin is happy sticking to the half marathon distance and with times of around 2hr.
"I booked my trip to come visit Lucy and then thought it would be fun to run a half-marathon while in New Zealand."
Corbin had never run a half-marathon outside Denver until last month when she ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half-marathon.
It starts in Georgetown, Colorado at 8500ft (2590m) and goes to Idaho Springs (7500ft) 2286m), clocking a personal-best of 2hr 2min.
"Denver, at 5280ft, is known as the Mile High City, so I came into this event hoping that training at that altitude would make it easier."
