REBROADCAST: Marina Gelman - How Adopting an Athletic Mindset Saved this Mother's Life
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
In this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon talks with special guest and Purple Patch Athlete Marina Gelman. In 2000, at the age of 40, Marina Gelman lost her college-aged daughter in a tragic car accident. At the time, Gelman was a new fitness enthusiast and avid runner. Overcome by grief after the accident, however, she holed herself up for almost two years and focused only on work to numb the pain. Unfortunately, during this time, she abandoned her fitness goals, started smoking again after a long hiatus, and put on weight; reaching over 200 pounds.
Ironically, it was another tragedy a short time later, the death of her Father from a heart attack, that inspired her to start training again. As it turns out, training non-stop turned out to be a blessing and a curse. Yes, she lost weight and found relief from her stress and heartache, but she was also overtraining…severely. Marina eventually succumbed to the devastating effects of chronic fatigue. Even the simple act of walking up a flight of stairs became unbearable.
In 2012, after hearing about Matt Dixon and Purple Patch from her running club, she reached out. At the time, she was 240 pounds, her heaviest. She explained to Matt that she had only two small goals:
Recover from her chronic fatigue
Run three miles again. That’s it.
Matt set her sights higher. Not only did he give her hope, but he also gave her a long-term structured plan and a wonderful community of support. Today, Marina Gelman is a Half-Ironman finisher, with her hopes set on finishing a full Ironman in the near future. She has also lost 105 pounds and trains daily, fully recovered from chronic fatigue.
This is a story of hope and promise. Adopting an athletic mindset, regardless of where you find yourself, just may be the one spark to save your life. “Losing a child is something unimaginable to go through,” says Marina. “Sport, in a way, and running saved me from sadness for the rest of my life.” If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
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Marina Gelman 00:00
I mean, losing a child, it's it's unimaginable, something unimaginable to go through. But sport, in a way, running in a way, saved me, saved me from sadness for the rest of my life.
Matt Dixon 00:19
I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the purple patch podcast. The mission of purple patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life. You
Matt Dixon 00:47
and welcome to the purple patch podcast as ever, your host Matt Dixon, and this week, we're going to go back in time. We're going to resurface an interview that is, quite frankly, one of my favorite interviews that we've had over the course of this now almost 400 episodes of the show. Over the last few weeks, we've been talking a lot around off season, correlating port sports performance as it relates to broader life, performance and health, and of course, starting to prime all of ourselves for 2026 a year that we want to include transformation, whether it's a focus on gaining podium or qualification towards Hawaii Iron Man or the Boston Marathon, or it's just about successfully implementing the practices and habits that fuel our daily readiness To enable us to show up better in life. There might not be a better story of transformation than Marina Gelman. I want to dig back in and resurface this interview, because it's one that strikes close to home. Marina has been a purple patch athlete for a long time. She still comes almost every Tuesday and Thursday to our bike sessions at Studio One in San Francisco, our performance center there. And I think it is one of my all time favorite stories of transformations from the ground up. If you listen and you wonder, could I really do this? Do I have time? What's the impact of taking on a sporting journey? What's the value of getting out of your comfort zone? Just listen to the words of Marina. Sit back and soak up the inspiration. I want you to listen for this one. It's a powerful one. Please enjoy it's in today's meat and potatoes. I give you Marina Gelman. You you, to be honest, I think Marina is going to blow you away. Marina Gelman, thanks so much for joining us today. Well, thank you, Matt for having me. We are going to go on a an emotional journey, I think, over the coming 30 or so minutes and but let's dive in. Let's, let's create some context first, I should say. And I think the first thing with I do detect a subtle accent in there. Why don't you give us a little bit of a background of of you growing up where you grew up, and because you weren't born in the States.
Marina Gelman 03:13
Now. Now, I was born in Odessa, Ukraine. I immigrated to America in the late 70s. I went to heal business college, got married at 21 that's Russian culture. You get married really early. Had one child at 22 one child at 24 and I got divorced at 38 and have been a single parent ever
Matt Dixon 03:34
since. Single parent ever since. So before we talk about the next chapters of your your story, your performance story that we're going to dive into today. I want to fast forward to the now. Okay, so let's actually bring you all the way up and and maybe confuse listeners a little bit. So, so currently your EA to the CEO at Oxon technologies, yes. So you've got a great job. You got your family. You've got two brothers, the great relationship with the daughter, son in law, in the army, a granddaughter, yes, and 18 months and a little dog, yes? Well, not a little lab, a lab. Okay, so we'll call it that by the name of Carlos Charlie. And and your half Iron Man finisher? Yes. Which half Iron Man Did you finish? Wisconsin, Wisconsin. So not an easy one overall. So to me, it sounds like you're thriving. Everything's everything's great. So some might say, Well, why we? Why have we chosen a random age grouper who you're not a pro. No, you're not a CEO. I wish I was, yeah, exactly. You wish you were. You're not a pro. You haven't finished on the podium yet. So why noise? Always hope. There is always hope. Yeah. So let's go back a little bit so we have your background. So I want to get into, I want to get into. Exercise first, and how you first started exercising? Because growing up as a, as a, as a Russian, Ukraine, so
Marina Gelman 05:09
well in my family, my dad and my grandfather did not believe that girls should exercise, so they were actually bribing teachers, PE teachers, so his daughters and my granddaughter would never exercise. I never exercise until I was 34 years old. Wow, there's just not at all. Not at all. I tried one time. I tried volleyball, and I loved it, but I also played piano, and someone said to my mom, she's gonna ruin her hands to play piano. That was the last time I did anything.
Matt Dixon 05:42
Yeah, Goodness me. So what was the catalyst at 34 when you first started exercising?
Marina Gelman 05:47
Oh, we opened a business in Ukraine. My husband and I, and he was living in Ukraine at the time, and I was living with the girls here in America. And I decided, I mean, I was going to visit him anyway. I decided to be cute when I visited him, so I wanted to get into my skinny jeans, and at 34 I tried to find a gym near my work that I could do something at lunch. And I found a step aerobic class, and I started going to the class every lunch time. I got success, I started looking better after step aerobic classes. The teacher, Lynn Whitlow, she was also a trainer in the gym, so I decided, okay, well, maybe I need to lift weights too. So next thing you know, I'm already lifting doing strength training three times a week, step aerobics every lunch time. And Lynn was a runner, and she ran a New York marathon. So one day I asked her, do you think I can run too? She goes, you probably can, but you can't if you're smoking one pack a day. I'm Russian. We all smoked. Yeah, sure. So I decided I'm going to try running, and I quit smoking so it Lynn would tell me, go run three blocks. Go run five blocks. Go run Lake Merced. I mean, every run was a personal record. It was the most glorious time. I was so happy. One day she told me to run Crystal Springs, 12 miles loop. So I went and I ran 12 miles. And I was so happy. I was so proud of myself. I went back to the gym, and I said, Lynn, I just finished 12 miles. She looked at me, she said, How long did it take you? And I said, told her the time, and she goes too long, and that was it. I was so mad that next weekend, I did the same run, 10 minutes faster, and to me, that's the day I became an athlete, because that was the second run. Was the first time ever did I go for improvement versus looking good, looking skinny, exercising.
Matt Dixon 07:53
So you shifted, you felt like, at that point of into sort of what will become really cemented in your in your world, in your fabric of who you are as an athletic mindset, which we will talk about. But something interrupted that journey, that athletic journey, that you had, a tragic event in your life. Would you mind sharing that?
Marina Gelman 08:13
Sure. So. The year was 2000 and my daughter and I, we got a call that our oldest my oldest daughter, Rachel, she was in a car with three other there were total three kids, and they were driving home from college, and they were in a car accident, and two kids died. What happened was someone cut them off. The boy was driving. Someone cut them off, and they went to veer to the right, and a minute before, someone stopped with a flat tire, and when they veered to the right, they hit the car that stopped, and my daughter and the boy died instantly. The girl that was in the back survived.
Matt Dixon 09:00
Goodness me. And you were 40 at the time, was that right? So you were, you were six years into, into, sort of the, the journey to adopting a mindset, let's call it that, but, but by this time, you're a single parent. I
Marina Gelman 09:15
was a single parent. I finished three mariners by then, and but when that happened, I, I mean, it's really hard to move forward to go on. I, I worked for blue Martini software at the time, and my company went public just a few months before. I was the only EA, the only off, you know, the only everything to everybody. And my CEO said to me at the time, take as much time as you want, but me being at home, I could hardly breathe. I couldn't even think so. I went to work two days after it happened, and to me, it was better to be at work than to be at home and think about what happened. So for the next two years, I didn't the only thing I did was work and go home eat. I ballooned to 200 pounds, but something with me. I was a runner, and I loved mountain, I loved looking outside and loved running. So few years into it, I think one day I said, Okay, this is it. This is enough. I can't do this anymore. I can't be home anymore. I felt trapped, so I bought nicotine gum because I also started smoking again.
Matt Dixon 10:38
Yeah, that's your Russian genetics coming out there.
Marina Gelman 10:41
Well, how do you deal with stress, meat and you smoke? So I bought nicotine gum and I went running, and, yeah, and,
Matt Dixon 10:51
and you started to move back into exercise. But, yes, but tragedy was, was not over for you. Afterwards, there was another event, yeah,
Marina Gelman 11:00
and my father passed away from a heart attack, and unfortunately, at that time, I had a different mindset. I said to myself, I'm not going to go and gain weight anymore, and I'm not going to smoke anymore. I'm just going to exercise. It made total sense to me. I at that time, I had a running coach, he was a track coach, so he would give me my plan my workouts, which was six days a week running, and I had easy days and template runs and long runs and speed work once a week. The problem was speed work was once a week, but every other run I did fast because I was had so much pain in me that I just had to run it
Matt Dixon 11:44
off. It was releasing. Yeah, yes, that that became the smoking and the eating almost became the obsession of exercise, right, within a all of the components of a classic track, sort of based training sessions in many ways, but, but you were managing these major events in your life with sort of understandable obsession. Let's call it that, right?
Marina Gelman 12:09
So I I ran six days a week, and then I did exercises at lunch, and then sometimes two a day, two at a time. I mean, teachers tend to see me as like, why are you leaving? There is another spinning class. Why don't you join us for the second spinning class? And yeah. Why not? Yeah? So that became what I did for a while, until gradually I got sick. It was my body stopped responding. I I would go to the track and I couldn't keep the speed anymore. I was just going down and down. My coach had no idea how to deal with it. He didn't understand over training at the time. And then one day, I stopped going to the track because I couldn't run anymore, and I became, you know, diagnosed as chronic fatigue.
Matt Dixon 13:01
And that was it. So it was a so that must been a plummeting of not just your physical ability, but your emotional state as
Marina Gelman 13:13
well. It was crazy, and it the thing, what always I feel saved me is because I have athletes mind, if I have a problem, you find a doctor, and you find a doctor and you solve it. And if you don't, if you don't find the right doctor, then you continue looking. So it's always been, you know, so I became a passion, and my mission to find a solution.
Matt Dixon 13:37
And you reached out. So this is about the time of your journey, our journey together, that you reached out to purple patch at the time. This time, 2007 or so you were, you were basically at your your lowest point, physically and emotionally. I mean, we can say that the sick is the right word. You are very known at that state that that you reached out to me, you reached out to purple patch and and I've always, I've always, I can't remember, to be honest, what your catalyst was for reaching out. And so sort of go back in time a little bit and talk about when we first what we felt when we first met, and what the catalyst was. And I want you to paint a picture of what your life was like, because you were talking about doing exercise classes. You were talking about going to the track that was not the Marina that I met. No. So where were you at physically? And then what was the catalyst for reaching out?
Marina Gelman 14:36
Okay, so I reached out to you in 2012 okay? And after many, many different treatments, one of them being cortisol treatment for adrenal fatigue, I gained massive amount of weight. And when I reached out to you, I was 240 pounds. It was massive, crazy. I found out about. Patch you from iguana running club. Martina Jones, who was the president at the time, invited you to speak at our annual meeting.
Matt Dixon 15:07
This is a historic, very well known club in San Francisco.
Marina Gelman 15:11
Yes, it's a women's running club that I belong to for many, many years. Yeah, I didn't attend the meeting, but she took some notes, and she sent it out. And I remember reading notes. I don't remember everything it said. I only remember two things. One was that you had chronic fatigue and you actually recovered. And another one, I remember that you said that you don't believe slow runners should run 22 miles because they're slow. You know, it's too much damage. And I remember, I've always run 22 miles for every marathon training. I mean, sometimes for my two marathons, I did 26 miles before my actual marathon. She
Matt Dixon 15:50
did a marathon before you did the marathon. Yes, I
Marina Gelman 15:52
did, yeah. And I was like, really? So I thought, okay, that that sort of clicked. And I thought, well, you've recovered from chronic fatigue, I'm going to contact you. Maybe you can help me
Matt Dixon 16:02
recover. And at this point, you it's fair to say, I mean, you couldn't walk up a flight of stairs.
Marina Gelman 16:09
I wasn't walking up. I was walking outside for about two hours a day. I worked part time, which helped me. I mean, I had a lot of time on my hands. I was using elevator to get to my first floor in my building had sleep apnea. I had to use a machine, which I didn't use, but I had to use a machine. And I also remember at that time looking over one of my doctor's shoulders and it said a beast next to my name, which totally freaked me out, because that's not how I see
Matt Dixon 16:37
myself. Well, right there. I think that's quite interesting. You decide at this point you are, there are no track sessions going on. You are walking very slowly, just fear of sanity, but you still have this athlete's mindset. And you look in the mirror, you see an athlete, and yet you can't walk up from stairs. You have to take the elevator up to your your building. So let's go to the why we're with the time very performance driven company. We sell our performance driven company. And do you remember goals that you had we came, what was the mission that you
Marina Gelman 17:16
I had two goals, and one goal was to recover from fatigue that I had. And the second goal was to run three miles. That's all I really wanted. If I could run three miles and I can run a marathon, if I just run three miles, I can build from there.
Matt Dixon 17:32
So it's, it really was ground it really was ground zero. Anyways, you
Marina Gelman 17:37
know, really glad you have bigger goals for me than you're into that.
Matt Dixon 17:41
So you remember our first conversation? I remember our first conversation. I don't remember the content of it, though. Do you remember that?
Marina Gelman 17:51
Well, I couldn't find a journal, but I wrote a couple of things in my journal after we spoke, and it said, This coach is going to change my life. That's what I read. I remember that you gave me hope. And I remember that you said, Okay, now we start work. I remember that. And I remember how excited I was. You know that, you know you said, Yes. And I remember also asking you, do you think I can run a 10k and you said, Yes. I said, when? And you said, eight months, something
Matt Dixon 18:24
like that. You know, I gotta tell you, I pulled that one out from my behind. That's, you got to create hope sometime.
Matt Dixon 18:34
But, but you had, I mean, at 20 the first training program was, was walking and some strength, if I remember. And I was very keen to get you sort of riding on a bicycle, but, but I do remember that one of the first things saying you have to get back to the mindset of being an athlete.
Marina Gelman 18:53
And one of the very first workout, maybe not the first week, maybe I remember you gave me a workout for every day, and I wasn't used to doing anything every day. I was resting after if I would exercise, I would need rest. That's how my mind was at the time. And I remember doing something two days in a row and writing to you and saying, I feel so stressed. Do you remember what you responded,
Matt Dixon 19:18
No, before we toughen up.
Marina Gelman 19:21
You said, it's not gonna kill you. Do it.
Matt Dixon 19:28
So So hang so now we got to join the dots, because now you're a half Iron Man finisher. And so we managed to get you, over a relatively short period of time, exercising consistently, and, and, and things were moving in a positive direction, and, and I have to say, at this point, it's it. You had to go through a journey before me that set up the platform to get you there. So, so I don't want this to I don't want your story to come across as I came in as the Savior. I think that. It was a catalyst and a perfect timing of our meeting that helped get there. And your body was able to fit into a system in many ways, while it was tailored for you, it wasn't magic dust. You had to do a lot of hard work yourself before, before you started on this journey, but after, you managed to get up to consistent exercise. I started to challenge you in different ways, and I and I remember you asking me about triathlon, because you were surrounded you
Marina Gelman 20:29
saw, well, I started with you, and I wanted only to run, and that was my goal, to run, but everyone else around me was swimming and riding bikes, and I remember telling you, I've decided not to focus on running. I want to learn everything. And you said, okay, and we started, you know, I was doing classes at shift, and I couldn't join the squad. I couldn't swim well.
Matt Dixon 20:58
Before you go there, let's get the groundwork first. How good were you as a swimmer and bike rider? Grounds? Well, you weren't right.
Marina Gelman 21:09
I wasn't running right. If you can imagine, you know, the way women swim in European countries, they don't want to get their hair worked. That's how I was swimming my first, my first plan with swimming, you wrote some things that I couldn't even understand. Let's just say I'm not a swimmer. I couldn't read the plan, but I do remember doing 10 laps in one hour with five minutes between each
Matt Dixon 21:36
so hang on. Let me refer 10 laps,
Marina Gelman 21:38
yes, in one hour of an hour with five minutes break between it.
Matt Dixon 21:44
That's not going to make the cut off In most races, Marina and cycling, non existent,
Marina Gelman 21:52
cycling I haven't done for years. When I was about 17, there was a accident, and I was involved in it, and I was just terrified of bikes. So for so many years, I never even came next to the bike.
Matt Dixon 22:07
And of course, you weren't training, you were using it as a mode of transportation when you were 17, because, right, you weren't allowed to exercise. It was just a way to get to point A, point B, yeah. And when we were starting the triathlon journey, you still couldn't run, right? So although you had, you had a running background a little bit, but we go from there. So let's go through the swim, the bike, the run and the integration. Because I think this is fascinating from the standpoint of the progression to performance, the journey that it takes. So our swim squad in San Francisco has several lanes with professionals at one end, very fast down to the far lane, which I refuse to even give a number designation World War Two, so that the swimmers in there are not to the level where they deserve to be labeled under a lane number you were not allowed in the squad. You literally, you were unable to swim in the squad. And how long was the journey there? I
Marina Gelman 23:08
think probably a year. You gave you gave me a number, and you said, if you can swim that number, you can join the squad. And I remember taking lessons from some swim instructor at some college, and I was giving her the number, and I was saying, that's the number I need to get to. So she started teaching me with you breathe every six stroke. I remember telling you that, and you're saying, no, no, no, no, you need oxygen, yes. So, so I patiently tried and tried, and until one day I did get in
Matt Dixon 23:50
and you're and you came in the squad and then the bike in. I mean, for the first year or so you weren't
Marina Gelman 23:54
riding outside. For the first year I was not riding outside. And then eventually you pushed me out outside, and I was lucky enough that two girls from shift, Debbie and Tracy, they were really worried about me being outside. I was not. I was so scared to be outside that I was not aware of my surroundings. I was not aware of cars. I was not aware of anything. My hands would be white and I would just keep upright. And so the girls, even though I would go, I would be like nine miles an hour speed. And these two girls are so much stronger than I am, they would be in the back of me trying to make sure I didn't get hit by a car, and continued screaming, get off the road. Get off the road.
Matt Dixon 24:39
Yeah, it was in that when we magnify that point out that's actually very common, because we talk a lot to regular triathletes with the importance of becoming really at home on your bicycle, where it becomes really intuitive, so that you can be really aware of your surroundings, going into potholes, seeing cars at junctions and things like that. But when you are really. Really fearful and ill equipped to be a master of your machine. That's where all your focus is. So and yeah, Debbie and Tracy, fantastic part of the purple patch community as well. And and a huge, huge contributors to your journey globally. So, so you started writing, and you started to improve. And then, of course, because we couldn't make the story any better, you broke your pelvis. Yes, I did. And so tell me about that. What happened? How did you break your pelvis?
Marina Gelman 25:32
I like riding my bug in Napa because Napa Silverado trail has big, large bike lane, and it's beautiful. So I wasn't on that trail two weeks, two weekends in a row, and the second weekend when the accident happened, I was actually 30 minutes faster. It was such a beautiful day. I was so happy. It was raining and I was fine. I wasn't scared. And there is this car that just closed my bike lane, and I had to pass the car, so I went around the car. And at that time, I didn't have a good bike, my old bike, and it was just too stiff. And I slipped on the white lane, paint lane, Yep, yeah. And I fell. I hit my head. I broke my pelvis in two places, and I had a tailbone fracture.
Matt Dixon 26:21
Goodness me, and I
Marina Gelman 26:23
drove myself home too
Matt Dixon 26:24
well. Of course you did. You're Russian, and I got to ask now of your journey so far, the last few years, been on your bike. How many times have you turtled on your bike? Turtling been a little tip over. So not that's obviously a major crash, and it took some rehab, which we navigate through, but you have quite a collection of hundreds, literally hundreds.
Marina Gelman 26:47
Yeah, hundreds times, every time. So with my old bike, again, it wasn't a great bike, and I generally would fall when I would start pedaling. It wasn't major or anything. We just start pedaling and didn't clip in in time. There was always something so thank God. Lawrence beanie, she went shopping with me, and she picked a better bike, and I haven't been falling since,
Matt Dixon 27:11
okay, so, but it wasn't the stage in the initial years. Really, every time you rode your bike, you were falling off your bike, yeah, and yet, there was never a question of you, did you ever feel like quitting or giving up?
Marina Gelman 27:25
Yeah, after I broke my pelvis, because it was such a major injury, and it was Major, not only to recover from, but it was major in terms of, I couldn't walk my dog, I couldn't go to work. I was walking with a walker. I couldn't cook, I couldn't do anything. And that became like I didn't want to go go for that again. So I think for maybe five months after that, I kept thinking, well, if I'm not a triathlete, who am I? And then I was thinking, well, maybe I'm a trail runner, maybe I can run 50 case for something. Yeah, yeah. And then that's when the value of a good coach is, because you kept sending me my plans, and I think it took about five months, and when the doctor released me to write again, and I would see my plan, optional, bike ride, you totally ignore it. Totally ignore it. It was optional, one time, optional another time, and then capital letters get out on the road.
Matt Dixon 28:27
I'd had enough at a certain stage. And how was that first ride? I mean, it was
Marina Gelman 28:32
so first ride I went to a parking lot, okay? And I was doing figure eights and riding my new bike. I loved my new bike. Was my first time riding it, and I really loved it. I sent you an email and I said, Hey, I'm riding my bike, and I get my new plan, and the next weekend, it's 25 months, and the weekend after that, it's 50 so I went from parking lot to 50 miles in three weeks.
Matt Dixon 28:56
And from a coaching standpoint, that was me going for the jugular, basically, and like, you're going to get over this, and it's going to go happen fast, and we can't mess around. We have to get there. Nothing to do with physical load, all to do with with building confidence, right? And stretching yourself and and you did that. And in short order, you joined us at a training camp. You think about training camps. How was that experience?
Marina Gelman 29:23
Well, it was, it was a great experience, because, I mean, it's three days, and you learn so much in three days. I remember, and the first day you were pushing me up a hill. Rumor has it, I almost killed you. That's true. Yeah, I didn't expect someone pushing me up the hill. I got scared. So that was the first day, and the second day, Michael, another assistant purple patch coach, he he drove me to a place on a hill, and he said, now you're right. I was amazing, really. So I started writing, and I. You showed up and you were riding with me for the next mile. And trust me, it was so difficult, and I so wanted to quit, but you were next to me, I couldn't quit. And I finished that ride, steep hill, it was Yeah, and I did okay. And after that, I was fine with all the rollers and all the races, wine men and Santa Rosa, because once I learned how to do it, once I was able to do it again and
Matt Dixon 30:25
again. And let's talk about the squad a little bit, because you're immersed in the purple patch squad in San Francisco. And I mentioned before, you know we have in in every session, we have some very elite people. In fact, you sit next to Dirk, who was fourth place in the Hawaii Iron Man in his age group. And just last year we have professionals in there was, were the elite athletes a source of intimidation for you when you when you were starting?
Marina Gelman 30:50
No, no, absolutely not. I think they sort of like adopt you, and they try to help you, and they try to teach you. Lawrence, she was teaching me how to swim. She was teaching me how to bike. She went shopping with me for the bike when I was, you know, when I was buying a bike, when she was injured, she would ride her scooter next to me when I'm climbing a hill, screaming at me, what are you thinking now? What are you thinking now? And I was actually thinking about someone else. Why is it so easy for him and so hard for me? Sure? Yeah, so. And she was bringing me back to the moment so I could focus on my own. You could control, yeah, what I could control? And, and, of course, Debbie and Tracy going with me, and all the rides, especially for the first year, and Sarah pm piano emailing me before races if I'm okay. And do you need anything? Giving me a necklace that said belief for Christmas. I mean, I love that necklace, so it's special. And Laura Sedal giving me a card encouraging me, encouraging me before a race. So I've never found that they were intimidating. They're just wonderful group of people.
Matt Dixon 32:04
That's fantastic to hear that they're so supportive of you. And I think that's something that I'm really proud of as sort of the leader or the coach of purple patch. Is this sort of CO connection between any level of athlete, and it's actually more about the desire to improve, which is the thing that gains respect in many ways, rather than what level you are, which is really important. But we bring you here to this point, we've talked about tragedy. We've talked about your journey into chronic fatigue and coming out of it. You started at 240, pounds. How much weight? How much weight did you lose? 105 pounds, 105 pounds, 105 pounds lighter. Now it's the point that we can tell about glorious success. So we enter the first half Ironman, or Iron Man, 70.3 and it was a fantastic, glorious finish. Yes,
Marina Gelman 33:00
it was a finish. I finished the race, just not in the cut off, yeah, but was disqualified because I missed the swim cut off for by one minute.
Matt Dixon 33:10
Goodness me and it was that devastating. Or what was
Marina Gelman 33:13
yes, I was so disappointed, especially because I made the mistake you told me not to not told all of us not to make that you don't follow someone else's feet because you don't know where they're going.
Speaker 1 33:26
And they decided to not go. They were not going where I needed to go.
Matt Dixon 33:31
And But ultimately, I man, Wisconsin, that was your, that was your first finish, and you, you got back on the horse, as it were. And, yeah,
Marina Gelman 33:39
I was disappointed for I think we all like we get a week of feeling bad, you say, a day. But sometimes it takes some of us more, you know, you take a week to feel bad for yourself, sad for yourself, and then you just start over again and train for another race.
Matt Dixon 33:56
And now you're, you're an athlete, you're a purple patch athlete. You're, you're training, you're guided by Matt Hurley, my assistant coach and and thriving, and continue to evolve, continue to improve, and have lofty ambitions. And I think, I think we can say it your, your ambition is to finish an Iron Man, yeah. But I want to, I want to take a tangent, but I want to talk about the athletic mindset. Okay, a little bit, and I want to go big picture. Okay, so you mentioned that you'd lost 105 pounds from there, but I want to go to some of the other impacts that you've experienced by adopting that athletic mindset. And so this methodology really having a focus, where we are focusing on nutrition, integrating strength, a smart and appropriate training program for you, not just obsessively running a marathon before you get ready for a marathon, and, of course, focusing on sleep and recovery. What's it what's it done to you? Beyond the. Making you leaner and allowing you to finish your half Iron Man, let's go bigger picture.
Marina Gelman 35:05
Well, I think, I mean, it's a wonderful way to live a life when you wake up in the morning and you spend it with people you really like and who are who are great, who are fun, who encourage you, who support you. We laugh. I mean, having ings in my lane, I mean, we laugh a lot, right? Sure, and it's, I am more confident. I have more energy. I can do more things at work. I'm better person, and I'm better mom, you know, to my daughter. So I think it's, I don't see a negative at all. It's all positive.
Matt Dixon 35:45
And do you really feel like it's, it's sort of a grounding moment for confidence? Yeah,
Marina Gelman 35:50
yes. And also, I think it's, it gives balance to my life, because if I wouldn't be doing this, then I would probably be working, working more sure, yeah, and I, and this way I take, I mean, I even when I negotiate jobs now I always negotiate. I mean, it's as important to me, the company, the management team, the salary, the benefits, what time I start, and when I was looking for my job, this job, I was when, if someone would say, you started eight o'clock, I would never even go for my second interview, because that was non negotiable. And I was recently, couple of months ago, someone I used to work with approached me and gave me a big raise, but I would have had to quit ppl in a purple patch, and that was not an option. So that's how I look at it right now, that that's how important it is.
Matt Dixon 36:49
It's It's amazing. How do you how do you, Gary, carry the burden of being a source of inspiration?
Marina Gelman 36:58
Is, I'm not. I'm just an athlete who is passionate about being better than being today better than yesterday. That's it. It's just, I love, I think recently I just, I mean, I just swim the fastest I've ever swim. Sure? How can you not be happy about that?
Matt Dixon 37:24
Right? Yeah, no, absolutely, you're the one thing on your journey. One. And it's sort of a personal question, but I think that it would have been easy for for this journey to be about your tragic loss and your and your journey of performance. But as I hear it, as I hear you talk about it, it's actually a very personal journey for you, which is really refreshing in many ways. It's that has happened to you in your life. It's obviously a terrible incident, but your journey is really yours to own. It doesn't feel like it's something that's sort of a makeup for something lost in many ways, is that, is that a is that accurate?
Marina Gelman 38:07
Well, it's, I mean, it is my journey. It's my life. It's, it's sad. I mean, losing a child, it's, it's unmanageable, something unimaginable to go through. But I think sport, in a way, running, in a way, saved me, saved me from sadness for the rest of my life. You know, it's I'm not the same person now that I was when I lost a child, they usually say, You're it's, it's before and after, you're different. But that being said, I think sport has given me so much, you know, and and purple patch. You know, purple patch community coaching. You know
Matt Dixon 39:01
you talk about coaching the and without being too gushing on our praise of of our relationship, but you are goal driven. There is no doubt. And where do you see this? This is a question that I asked my professional athletes. So I know ask you the same question, which is, what's the value of coaching?
Marina Gelman 39:27
I'm going to talk about from my personal, personal side. You were my coach for many, many years. So I'm going to start by when I joined PPF, I was overweight, I was afraid to push myself because exercise had made me feel worse for a very long time, and you personally knew when I was scared and you pushed me through my fear and comfort zone. I. I remember one time I received two workouts. This was the very first time he gave me two workouts. One was, I believe, a walk, and another one, maybe 30 minutes swim, I don't know. And it scared me to death, because not only am I trying to absorb one workout a day, now it's two. So I send you an email, and I said, How do you know that I can do this? And you responded, if it's in your plan, and I said, so you can do it.
Matt Dixon 40:30
And I was a real charm to you in those days,
Marina Gelman 40:34
and that's it. And I and it was true, and I started doing two workouts a day. And I mean, I would have never pushed myself this way, this fast, the way we went through. You're a teacher, and you always teach every class and every swim. You always believed that I could do things even though I couldn't do an example would be Santa Rosa, 70.3 they changed the course, and I'm watching on a video that it's a three mile descent and one mile climb. Totally got anxious, and I email you, and I say, oh my god, there's, I mean, I've never done this before, right? And you were so you said, it's not descent is not bad, and climb is not steep, but practice, you can do it. And yes, I did it, and I did the race. So
Matt Dixon 41:30
what would you say to someone who's intimidated to start their own journey, that are maybe sitting there, that are contemplating, but they just feel the intimidation. What would you say to someone?
Marina Gelman 41:43
Well, I think you need to find a program like I found purple patch that has education. And it doesn't matter whether you're a beginner who's never done anything, I've never done biking or swimming, or you're someone who's been doing this for a long time. Purple patch, it teaches you nutrition and swimming skills and biking skills and running skills, and it gives you a training plan and gives you coaches to speak to and ask questions so you have everything possibly that you need. It has a community that if you can do this alone, you can always join the community of athletes who are doing the same thing. So you will always be supported, and you'll always be helped. And there is when I was running 30 miles a week and doing crazy amount of classes. If I had purple patch as my coach. If you had you as my coach, I would have never gotten sick, because someone would have seen what was going on. I'll give you an example. Recently, in December, I went for a stressful period in my life, and I think you and Matt Hurley looked at my data and figured out that I was flat and I wasn't improving, and all of a sudden, my workouts were cut in half, 50% for two months. I was screaming, I was kicking, I was not happy, and but, you know, at the end of the day, two months later, I'm improving and everything again. So if I would have had that when I got sick, it would have been a different story we would have been talking
Matt Dixon 43:22
about, yeah, and what's really come out in what you said there and what you said earlier was it's, it's, it's a guide, a framework, but it has to have education and hopefully community as well as important. It takes a village in many ways, especially if you're if you're just starting your journey.
Marina Gelman 43:40
Well, I feel accountability is huge. If you're you know, you need to have someone to you need to have someone who gives you a plan, and you need to have someone who can you can ask a question. Sometimes you don't know the right answer, and you need someone who understands, you know and and sometimes you need support. It's not always do. Am I motivated to go to class? Not always. Sometimes I'm not and but I know if I get up and go to a gym, there will be a coach, there will be a friend, there will be somebody who make me feel better.
Matt Dixon 44:15
Well, I want to point out that you're only still on the program because you've got reasonably good taste in music, yes. And outside of that, you would be struck off. Yeah, but it's 2020 we fast forward two years. What's the version of Marina that we're going to see in 2020 what are your goals?
Marina Gelman 44:32
I want to continue learning. I want to continue to learn, to swim, to bike, to run faster. I want to just thrive. I mean, this is I'm not. It's not about racing. It's about living and living healthier life and being a healthier growing older, learning makes me feel young.
Matt Dixon 44:53
That is an elite performance mindset and learning growth, fantastic. So Marina, thank you. We have one more thing to do. Yeah, something that you don't know. It's the Quick Fire question. Yes, you've got to go through, and you probably know the rules by now. To be succinct, one word, one sentence. It's impossible for me. It's tough for you. Okay, so we're going to go through, I'm going to rattle them off, and by now you might already start to know these, but here we go. You ready? We're going to finish these All right. Number one, what's the biggest challenge? Time-starved high performers face, getting enough sleep. Number two, what's your number one performance habit to help daily energy,
Marina Gelman 45:40
listening to music when I'm riding.
Matt Dixon 45:44
Oh, biking, all right, yeah. So I guess number three my answer itself, training. Listen to music, focus on the task, or troubleshoot work problems
Marina Gelman 45:55
I can do. Actually, all three
Matt Dixon 45:59
depends on the day, okay, the one one of the 2% of multi taskers, I like it. What do you wish you had more of money? Money, all right, training fly solo or surround yourself with a crowd. I know the answer to that. One name, one to two characteristics of an elite performer that you see across disciplines,
Marina Gelman 46:19
tunnel vision and determination,
Matt Dixon 46:23
determination and tunnel vision. Who has been your biggest mentor? Performance or not,
Marina Gelman 46:29
it's you and Kate. Okay.
Matt Dixon 46:32
Number one tip for travel, pillow or jacket behind your back. Yeah. Good one. Yeah, Marina, want to thank you. Thank you for sharing your story and and being so open and, and I think by sharing your story, hopefully it's a catalyst that there's one or two or 10 people that decide to to get active and do something and and adopt an athletic mindset, even know when they're starting, they're nowhere near the podium, maybe even nowhere near walking up a flight of stairs, because before you know it, you can, you can be a half Iron Man finisher, that's going on the journey to become an Iron Man finisher.
Marina Gelman 47:15
Well, you know, I always have hope, because maybe in 2030, years, if I continue training, I might be on the podium. You never know.
Matt Dixon 47:22
You never know. There you go. Thank you so much. Thank you. And you need to get home because you've got a hard bike class in the morning and laziness will not
Marina Gelman 47:31
be tolerated. Okay, sounds good. Take care. Thank you. Bye. Well,
Matt Dixon 47:34
thank you Marina and guys, that is a special woman, the epitome of gumption. And by the way, when you're hearing a story, you might assume that I've gently caressed Marina's way to improvement, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I have to say, above all athletes I've coached, I've probably set standards and expectations higher than most. In fact, I treat Marina no differently than I treat my pros. There are no gifts. There's no time for complacency, and there's no opportunity for lovey dovey nurturing, I challenge Marina more than any other amateur I've coached, and she's had to earn respect and the compliments, and she gets them in sparse amounts. Every piece of praise that I've given Marina has had to be earned, and it created a runway that's enabled her to ultimately go on for success. I hope you enjoy it. I hope that you're inspired as ever. Thanks for listening, and I really thank you. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe. It's your best way to keep up with everything purple patch until next time. I'm Matt Dixon, see you for the next episode. Take care, guys. Thanks so much for joining and thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the purple patch channel of YouTube, and you will find it there. And you could subscribe, of course, I'd like to ask you if you will subscribe. Also Share It With Your Friends, and it's really helpful if you leave a nice, positive review in the comments. Now, any questions that you have let me know, feel free to add a comment, and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com or leave it in the comments of the show at the purple patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset, as we like to call it, and so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, Let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience, and we want to welcome you into the purple patch community with that. I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do, take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Marina Gelman, athletic potential, transformation, running, chronic fatigue, Ironman, training, mindset, overcoming tragedy, community support, coaching, performance habits, nutrition, strength training, triathlon.