Nice job covering the race. I understand the timing of NYC fit well into Fisher's overall racing schedule this year, but his performance and post-race comments make me think he might have been better off making his debut on a flat fast course. Seems like the hills wore out his legs.
Fisher was approaching the half as an experiment, but he was managing two variables/challenges: the distance and the hills. Yes, he has experience running xc and he trains on hills, but it's been over 7 years since his collegiate xc racing days. That's a long time.
A good scientific experiment isolates variables. A lot of the guys mentioned in this thread who had successful debuts in the half did so on flat courses. One exception is Farah, who won the NYC half in his debut. But that race played out very differently than today's. The opening 10k when Farah did it was 29:32; the leaders were under 28:00 today.
If Fisher wants another crack at a half, he might want to consider a flat fast course so he can simply tackle the distance without having to deal with the additional challenge of hills.