Today I ran the Israel Half-Marathon in Bet She'an.

My finish time was not great - I did not focus on my training, and I have not even run at all during the past 3 weeks leading up to it, but I finished, even though my timing was worse than last year.

I have been running fairly regularly for a bit longer than a year, though I still do not consider myself a "runner", and I am still amazed by what I see when I go out on the roads or trails to run. And it is especially magnified when going to an event, like the half marathon I ran today, where there are so many other people participating (there were 1700 people running today in the event).

If you look around, you will be amazed what a person can do when he puts his mind to it. The words "I can't" or "it is impossible" should almost never be said, as almost always the reasons stopping a person from doing something are more often mental and psychological than physical. Of course there are sometimes where a person cannot do something for physical reasons, but I think most of the time the issues are more mental.

For example, today I saw running, and finishing:

• a guy with one leg - and he was one of the fastest people running - not in the top tier, but near the front.
• Extremely overweight people.
• Old people.
• very old people
• I saw one old man who was running and had to stop to rest/breathe almost every 3 minutes or so. Literally. He was keeping up with me (shows how slow I am) so I saw him for much of the run.
• People with various injuries (army injuries probably for most of them)
• healthy people
• men, women, teenagers, etc.

Running a distance of 21km, or 42km for the full marathon, straight is so unnatural and beyond the normal capabilities of the human body that it is not just amazing that a guy with one leg can do it if he puts his mind to it, or that old and overweight people can do it, but it is amazing that even young and healthy people can do it. If you put your mind to it, and train, it is doable.

The human mind can overcome most physical limitations. You just have to put your mind to it.