Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Dorene Robinson runs on the indoor track at the Penn Hills YMCA recently in preparation for the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tenn., on April 28. Ms. Robinson, 37, suffered from symptoms that suggested she had a stroke last year, although tests have proven inconclusive. Click photo for larger image.

Six months before she ran her first marathon, Dorene Robinson couldn't walk without a cane, couldn't climb stairs without assistance, and couldn't hold her little girl in her arms.

In May of last year, Ms. Robinson, now 37, was having surgery to remove a suspected tumor from one of her ovaries. The tumor was benign, but a blood vessel got nicked during the procedure. A hematoma formed. She thought she suffered a stroke.

Strokes are the third leading cause of death in America, and the No. 1 cause of disability in adults. A stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery, or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain. This causes brain cells to die, and the abilities controlled by those brain cells are lost.

"I completely lost the use of my right arm and leg," Ms. Robinson said. "I learned to drag my leg behind me while putting my weight on a cane in my left hand. I could no longer hold my kids or even have them sit on my lap, as they would just slide right off."

It was Ms. Robinson's chiropractor, Dr. Douglas Keim, who first suspected she'd had a stroke.

"She came in for treatment, dragging her leg. I did a Hautant's test [a neurological procedure to identify insufficient blood flow through one or both vertebral arteries]," Dr. Keim said. "I'd never had a positive before. She was a wild positive."

"Dorene asked if I would work on her neck, because it was hurting," Dr. Keim said. "I said no, I can't touch you. You've got to get to a hospital right away."

Dr. Keim sent her back to her medical doctor, Dr. Robert Beasley, who sent Ms. Robinson to Forbes Regional Hospital for tests. They were inconclusive.

"There is no documented evidence she had a stroke," Dr. Beasley said. But her symptoms persisted.

This was the latest and apparently the most serious of a series of ailments that have afflicted Ms. Robinson since age 7, when, she said, she got arthritis in her toes after her mother accidentally backed over them with the car. People are at greater risk for developing arthritis after an injury to a joint.

She developed arthritis in her neck and back after the car she was driving was struck by a semitrailer truck in 1989.

In 2004, Ms. Robinson had surgery to remove black mold from her sinus cavities, and developed lip cancer.

"My body just broke down," she said. "It just physically couldn't take it any more."

Most people who suffer strokes have permanent disability. If Dorene Robinson did have a stroke, she is one of the lucky third who recover completely. And when Ms. Robinson describes her recovery as "miraculous," she isn't exaggerating.

Dorene and her husband, John, an engineer for Westinghouse, are faithful churchgoers, members of the Hebron United Presbyterian Church in Penn Hills. On the night of June 5, 2006, she was attending an evening service at another church.

"My illness had broken me down physically and spiritually," she said. "I told God I didn't know what to do. I asked Him to take this away from me."

As she prayed, Ms. Robinson said she heard a voice from somewhere inside her saying: "Let it go, let it go." She did.

"I felt this intense heat surge up my back and neck. I could move my arm and leg again," Ms. Robinson said.

"I was asleep when she came home," her husband remembered. "She came home and started jumping on the bed. I asked her what she was doing. 'Because I can do it!' she exclaimed."

"My reaction was amazement," he said. "Not only was her mobility back to 100 percent, but her eyesight as well, which was a prior condition." (Ms. Robinson was born farsighted in one eye, nearsighted in the other. She'd worn bifocals since the eighth grade, but hasn't worn glasses since that night at church.)

"The next day, when the kids got up, the first thing my daughter asked me was if this meant I could hold her now," Ms. Robinson said. "I immediately picked up both of the kids and held them in my arms. It was such an incredible feeling! I decided then it was time to start taking care of myself again."

She and her husband have three children, Lisa, 20; Joey, 8; and Camille, 5.

Dr. Keim said he was amazed, too, when he next saw her.

"She came walking in, and it was like she was coming over for dinner. The cane was gone. I checked her out. Everything was normal," Dr. Keim said.

She told me she was going to start taking better care of herself," Dr. Keim said. "I asked her what she was going to do. 'I think I'll run marathons,' she said."

Ms. Robinson had taken up running after Joey's birth in 1998, and accelerated her training after Camille was born in 2001. But she'd never run anything longer than a 10K (6.2 miles), and after the family moved to Pittsburgh from Kansas City in 2003, she got out of the exercise habit.

"I started training for a 5K in September [the Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race], but I got on the wrong bus and did the 10K. It felt great," she said.

Her success prompted her to start training for her first marathon, the inaugural Outer Banks Marathon in North Carolina last Nov. 12. Despite pouring rain and winds gusting to 22 miles per hour, Ms. Robinson finished the 26.2-mile course in a respectable 5 hours and 47 minutes.

She likes the discipline that training for a marathon imposes, she said, the sense of accomplishment she gets from completing one, and the camaraderie she enjoys with other runners. "You have all these people cheering you on, and you know you're doing something that not everyone can do," Ms. Robinson said.

With race entrance fees typically about $80, and transportation costs, "my husband told me this is an expensive habit," she said. "I thought I would get a job at Starbucks to support my habit. But he goes out of town sometimes, and we have small children."

Ms. Robinson next ran the Phoenix marathon in January. She'd been looking forward to warmer temperatures after her monsoon experience in North Carolina in November. But it was not to be. Phoenix on Jan. 13 was in the grip of a cold snap. Temperatures were well below freezing at race time.

"I found a glove along the race course, and I kept shifting it from one hand to the other, trying to keep a little warm," she said. Despite the inclement weather, she improved her time to 5:27.

She's now training for the Country Music Marathon in Nashville April 27. Her daughter Lisa, now a soldier in Kuwait, paid her entrance fee for her.

Typically, Ms. Robinson works out six mornings a week, five at the Penn Hills YMCA where she takes a spinning class, lifts weights, and runs either on the track or a treadmill.

"If you had seen her then [after her stroke] as compared to now, it's unbelievable," said Peggy Dipko, 37, a friend from church who often works out with her.

On Saturday mornings, Ms. Robinson runs up to 20 miles on the Youghiogheny River Trail near Boston, south of McKeesport.

"I love doing the trail," she said. "It's just me and God and nature."

Running is becoming a family affair at the Robinson household.

"I'm starting to run with my kids now," she said. "I tell them it's not about losing weight. It's about being healthy."

But not for the whole family. A knee injury playing high school football makes it difficult for him to run, Mr. Robinson said. "Besides," he said, "I don't like running."