Congratulations Yoshi!! Wow. What an inspiration!! Yasher Koach. May you continue to go onto bigger and better things…
I was actually at the expo on Friday (as an observer) and was at the marathon in Central Park (yes, also as an observer)…. I must say, I was floored and I actually cried a few times.
Watching people stream by me, from all walks of life, all ages, abilities etc, was cool. It hit me that each person trained for months even years to get to this point (I was watching at Mile 26.1). It really gave me alot of chizuk about sticking to goals and what can be accomplished with patience, fortitude and hard work…. If an amazing physical feat like this could be done, kal v’chomer the spiritual ones!!
As R’ Ratz says, “the physical world has hidden elements of the spiritual world in it. If you look right, you can learn about the spiritual world from almost all things physical…
Seeing the many kinds of disabled runners made me cry all over again…. 1 man with no arms, raised his tiny stubs (what his upper arms would be) amidst the soaring cheers, another hand cyclist had a prosthetic leg attached to the back of his bike, and plenty of others. Old people, heavy people, very short people…..some people and me thinking, “if they can do it, I can do it!”
26.2 just seems like so much.
Yoshi, tell us how you did it. What helped you through all the training, training and running the race?
Share with us some words of running wisdom.