Karen Dickerson is most at home when her running shoes are pounding the pavement. Six days a week, several miles a day, all year long. Karen, a Special Olympics athlete who lives in Springfield, Va., is a runner – a marathon runner.

She's laced up her running shoes everywhere from Richmond, Va., for the Richmond Marathon, to Dublin, Ireland, for the 2003 World Games, to Shanghai, China, for the 2007 World Games Torch Run Final Leg. In April 2008, Karen laced them up again for her second run in the Boston Marathon. Wearing bib number 9713, she was racing to beat her 2007 time: 3 hours, 24 minutes and 58 seconds.

Clad in a bright white and yellow DC Road Runners jersey, Karen crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 43 minutes and 6 seconds. From Karen’s perspective, this was 20 minutes shy of her goal.

“I can do a lot better,” she said in an e-mail to her coach, Nancy Julia, after the race. In fact, two days later she was already planning her strategy for coming in at 3:20 or under next time around.

But when it comes down to it, Karen has already won. At the young age of 23, Karen has more courage and bravery than most will ever know. In her 15 years with Special Olympics, Karen has broken the most difficult barrier – rising above the misperceptions placed on her and the millions of others with intellectual disabilities by society every day.

Each time Karen laces up her running shoes and crosses the finish line, Karen is a winner. She demonstrates that everyone is capable of achievement and that she – and the many others with intellectual disabilities – can do anything they put their minds to, as long as you give them the chance.

A chance that her parents, Ernestine and Joe, gave her 22 years ago, when at age 1, she weighed only 12 pounds. “She didn’t eat, she didn’t really grow at all that first year,” Ernestine said. “She didn’t even start walking until after she turned 2.” Years later, after many hurdles, she found her niche on the track.

In 2007, she proudly stood in the Rose Garden and presented the Special Olympics Flame of Hope to President George W. Bush. Several weeks later, she ran across China sharing the impact Special Olympics has had on her life with thousands.

“Karen is a tireless advocate for her fellow athletes,” President Bush said during the Rose Garden Ceremony. “She’s what we call a fierce competitor. In the 2003 World Games in Ireland, Karen was told that she had a stress fracture in her leg. Yet, through sheer willpower, she won the bronze medal. Karen should serve as an inspiration for a lot of folks in our country.”

And in April 2008, she once again stood beside 30,000 other Boston Marathon runners – without intellectual disabilities – at the start line, wearing her bright white and yellow DC Road Runners jersey. Although she crossed the finish line just shy of her goal, she showed the world once again that she can do it – that her perception isn’t skewed, ours is. And she won. For more information about becoming a Special Olympics athlete, visit our athletes section.

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