She Started Running After Being Held at Gunpoint — Now This Instagram-Famous Trainer Inspires Thousands, Including 1 Cancer Survivor

There's so much more to everyone's story!

Many of you — a cool 117,000 of you, in fact! — watch on-demand studio Peloton's head trainer and ultimate girl boss Robin Arzon while exercising your hearts out, each and every day.

BUT, did you know that Robin first started running as a way to cope with being held at gunpoint in college?

"In 2002, I was meeting my friends for a drink," Robin begins, "and a man walked in saying he was shot. The next thing I know, another man walked in waving a gun, threateningly to kill everyone in the bar."

And as if that's not terrifying enough, the gunman specifically targeted Robin.

"Before I knew it, he grabbed me by the hair and he's dragging me across the floor, and I became his main hostage," she remembers. "I became a human shield between the NYPD outside and us."

"All I'm thinking was, 'I'm not dying today.'"

Thankfully, while she bravely stood as the hostage, the gunman stopped to put the gun into his waistband — which is when another person in the bar courageously jumped him from behind. After that, the nightmare came to an end.

But still, Robin was haunted, which is when she started running — as a way to cope with the extreme trauma she endured.

"I ran through pain and, honestly, I ran through fear," she says. "It was in the run that I found my strength again. The runs started small, and then they started getting farther and farther, 'til I crossed marathon finish lines and 100-mile finish lines."

So, even though the Shut Up and Run author had what she calls a "dream job" as a corporate lawyer in NYC, she decided to give it all up — and "completely reinvent" herself as a fitness pro.

And talk about a success story!

Now, Robin is not only a ultra-marathoner, but also the Vice President of fitness programming at Peloton, where she constantly inspired people — including our viewer Mary, who relied on Robin's classes to help her recover both physically and emotionally after beating colon cancer. (We introduced the two on the show, and the tears freely flowed!)

Watch Robin tell her incredible story in the video above!