Ziv Shilon salutes
Ziv Shilon salutesIDF Spokesman's Unit

In October of 2012, IDF Captain Ziv Shilon was seriously wounded in a Hamas attack near Gaza and lost his arm.

On Sunday, almost three years after the incident, Shilon participated in the 42nd Berlin Marathon. He crossed the finish line after 42 kilometers (26 miles) and four hours of running.

Speaking to Channel 2 News after the marathon, Shilon said, "I feel fantastic, it was a huge challenge that I set for myself a long time ago. I practiced quite a bit. I began this journey from a place where, for almost two years, I had not done any physical activity because of the serious trauma my body suffered, and after a long journey I got far with a lot of falls along the way.”

Even though his injury was to his arm and not to his legs, Shilon explained that it was nevertheless difficult to run a marathon.

"Because I have only one hand, I found it difficult to balance my body and learned little by little how to do it,” he told Channel 2, saying he was motivated by friends who accompanied him in the marathon and came especially from Israel.

“I felt that all the people of Israel were behind me, I saw the Israeli flags in the street and saw people who told me that they are empowered by seeing me running,” continued Shilon. “As a wounded soldier and an Israeli citizen, to participate in this marathon here in Berlin gives me a sense of victory of an entire nation. In light of the Jewish history in this place, there is a huge significance.”

Shilon ran the marathon while wearing a shirt with pictures of his mother and Yochai Kalangel, a close friend of his who was killed in a Hezbollah missile attack on Har Dov in northern Israel eight months ago.

"It gave me a lot of energy during the run, it was hard but it was worth it. If you believe in something and do something for it - it happens,” he told Channel 2 excitedly.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Sukkot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)