No Off-Season Episode 4 | Marko Cheseto | Extreme Losses, Extraordinary Gains

TRAINED

Nike

Sleep, Mental Health, Training, Diet, Nike Podcast, Movement, Workout, Nutrition, Exercise, Recovery, By Nike, Running, Health & Fitness, Trained, Health, Fitness, Eating, Nike

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A gifted runner raised in a remote Kenyan village, Marko Cheseto earned a scholarship to race for an American university and moved to Alaska in 2008. As his star rose on the track, Marko began to feel increasingly pressured and displaced, struggling with his own mental health. The struggle worsened when Marko’s cousin and teammate died by suicide in 2011. Later that year, Marko went for a run having taken too many antidepressants. He lost consciousness in the snow for 3 days. Somehow, he survived, but his frostbitten feet were soon amputated. From his hospital bed, Marko didn’t know if he would ever run again. In this episode of No Off-Season, Marko shares his harrowing story with Crisis Text Line’s Natalia Dayan, a licensed social worker and therapist. He explains why mental health care needs more cultural sensitivity, the importance of spreading a message of hope, and what he’s determined to achieve—beyond smashing records as a Para athlete—by sharing the most difficult details of his own experience.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The hardest time, you know, is at night.
0:12.0	When everyone is sleeping and you can't even sleep, it's like evening time.
0:17.0	And now I'm like, okay, it's about to be that evening again.
0:21.0	I need to run so that tonight at least I can have a good night.
0:26.0	Because I had experienced sleepless nights, so I knew what was coming ahead of me.
0:35.0	That's Marco Chicetto, marathon champion and world record holder.
0:39.0	He's talking about a night that would forever change him.
0:42.0	Race in a remote village in Kenya, Marco would move to Alaska as a college athlete,
0:47.0	a runner with tremendous promise.
0:50.0	But the move would present Marco with mental health challenges that nearly cost him his life.
0:55.0	As Marco describes it on this night, he said out for a run in the snow,
1:00.0	a way to seek out some peace.
1:02.0	While running, he lost consciousness.
1:05.0	He woke up with severe frostbite three days later.
1:08.0	Doctors would have to amputate his feet.
1:11.0	The story Marco shares is complex.
1:13.0	It's about dealing with the pressure to assimilate, the devastating loss of a close family member,
1:19.0	and the waste mental health care can get lost in translation.
1:23.0	But above all, Marco Chicetto wants to spread a message of opportunity and positive thinking.
1:29.0	He now identifies as a self-proclaimed mental health advocate.
1:32.0	And his journey to become one is nothing short of extraordinary.
1:36.0	One quick trigger warning before we begin.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nike, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nike and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.