We said we’d finish the running with a bang, and we picked quite the race! A half-marathon that had a bonus 0.3 miles (so, a total of 13.4 miles or 21.6 kilometers), and around 2,000 ft (or 610 meters) of climbing.

The race was at the Lake Chabot Regional Park, and was a counter-clockwise loop of the lake with a long detour through some of the most beautiful woods in Bay Area. It’s such a gorgeous run that the first few climbs — maybe even including the 600 feet in the third mile — didn’t hurt. I can’t quite say the same for the undulating terrain after the 10-mile mark: by then, my thighs were telling me they’d had enough climbing for one day!

Come to think of it, maybe the first few miles didn’t hurt because it was *freezing*. It was near on freezing when we started, and the grass was crispy with a frost. My fingers were so cold in my thin running gloves that they hurt, and I didn’t feel my feet for at least five miles. Even crossing the finish line I was still layered-up with three layers of running gear on top. Still, these freezing days are some of the most beautiful — there was barely a cloud in the sky and barely a puff of wind. Gorgeous!

While I’m whining, I should note that we should have trained harder for a half-marathon. It’s a decent step up from our diet of 10k races over the past few months, and came on the back of a quieter couple of weeks. Still, we made it, and 2 hours and 23 minutes isn’t too bad for a 13.4 miler with 2,000 feet of climbing! But, wow, was I stiff and sore for the next three days — if you saw some old guy hobling around, it may have been me.

All in all, an amazing way to finish a pretty special year of raising money for the GBS/CIDP Foundation, and getting the message out about GBS and related conditions. I’ve no idea what we’ll do in 2016 without all this fundraising and running — I’m sure we’ll think of something…