Berks woman's leg injuries can't stop her running.

Janet Oberholtzer has spent the last five years of her life defying expectations.

Some of you may recall that she is the former Morgantown woman whose husband, Jerry, sold their garden center in 2004, rented a 39-foot RV and with their three sons, Joshua, Joseph and Jonathan, went on a cross-country trek that ended in a near fatal wreck.

Jerry and the boys came away with bumps and bruises but Janet's legs were pinned in the wreckage.

At first she was not expected to live.

Then doctors said she'd live but they didn't expect her to walk.

Then she walked and they said she'd never run again.

Well, guess what?

"I did recover a lot better than my doctors thought," Oberholtzer said. "I've had about 18 surgeries."

Jerry bought an older home in Mohnton and is fixing it up.

Joshua, 20 is in his second year at West Chester University, studying communications.

Joseph, 18, graduated from Twin Valley High School last year, and Jonathan, 16, is a 10th-grader at Gov. Mifflin.

All the while, Janet has been undergoing surgeries and physical therapy and after a long time wondering, she started getting up on a treadmill. She built up her strength so that she could walk comfortably, and always there in the back of her mind was the admonition that she'd never run again.

She always loved to run and missed it badly.

She started jogging on her treadmill and a few weeks ago went to Gring's Mill and took her first steps as a runner again on the dirt path along the Tulpehocken Creek.

To understand the kinds of injuries Janet suffered you need only look at her left calf.

"It almost looks like a prosthesis," Janet said. "But the doctors were able to save the sciatic nerve that goes from your spine down to your foot and gives you range of motion in your foot and ankle.

"I lost some of the veins and arteries, but the main ones were still there and that's what made the doctors determine they could save my leg in the first place," she said.

Janet said she pushed herself to adjust to what she calls the new normal.

"I used to think people should just get over things and move on and now I realize it's much more of a process."

Her next goal is to run in the Garden Spot Village Marathon relay on April 4.

Sounds like Janet has found her way through.

Then again, what did you expect?