In 2010, Becca Goeckeritz’s husband gave her a Christmas gift that changed her life. Goeckeritz, who is paralyzed below the waist, received a hand cycle, a recumbent bicycle in which Goeckeritz pedals using her hands. As Becca and her husband Isaac rode around their home in Salt Lake City, Goeckeritz realized she enjoyed riding the bike so much, she wanted to ride it in a marathon.

After a long process, Goeckeritz finally settled on the ING Miami Marathon, and she has been training for the past eight weeks. The only problem is she has had to train in the hills and snow around her home.

Goeckeritz can’t wait to get to South Florida.

“I get 80 degree weather in January?” Goeckeritz said. “I am all about that.”

About 30 years ago, Goeckeritz wandered behind a car in a neighbor’s driveway. Although she was only 15 months old, she remembers the silver bumper, and seeing it roll backwards and hit her in the forehead. The car’s tire rolled over Goeckeritz’ shoulder. As the tire twisted, Goeckeritz was paralyzed from the waist down.

Goeckeritz’s disability has not stopped her from much. She teaches violin, serves as an office manager for her father’s accounting office and does motivational speaking.

During her training, Goeckeritz started using FitStudio, an online community created by Sears where people of all fitness levels gather to discuss and chart their progress. Goeckeritz enlisted the help of a nutritionist and a physical trainer, and when she told her story to Sears, the company sent her a competitive hand cycle to replace the beginners’ level present from Christmas.

For Goeckeritz, training has not been all that different from overcoming the hurdles of a disability.

“With a disability, you really have an opportunity to hit a lot of road barriers,” Goeckeritz said. “The world doesn’t cater to you to be able to participate in activities like everyone else can. You really have to think about how much you really want to participate in something, then when you reach determination level, you can start to pick apart, ‘Well, what are my challenges going to be, and how do I overcome them?’ Training for a marathon is very similar — you just have to have that desire and that willingness to overcome barriers that come in your way.”

Among the 25,000 runners Sunday, and the 5,000 who are doing the full marathon, will be about 65 marathoners who, like Goeckeritz, are sponsored by Achilles International. Dick Traum founded Achilles in 1983 to help disabled athletes looking to participate in long-distance runs.

“What we’re really doing is we’re giving people an opportunity to achieve,” Traum said. “When someone achieves something that might have been considered impossible, what this does is it gives people a new level of aspiration. ‘Gee I just did a marathon, if I can do this, what else can I do?’ That’s a very important part of life and having fun.”