IN THE AFTERMATH of his own career, David Gillick hated running.
The Olympian and two-time European Indoor 400m champion has spoken openly about his relationship with athletics fracturing and the mental health struggles he endured.
After years of high performance, he went from one hundred to zero in terms of training. There was no way he was going to continue running in his spare time. That chapter was closed.
But in time, it all changed. Gillick went along to parkrun one Saturday morning in Marlay Park, got around the 5km route, and slowly but surely, was drawn back in. So much so that he feels that running is taking over his life, all over again.
“I had my career and the elite side of it, and then I drifted away from it for a couple of years,” Gillick, now best known for his brilliant trackside interviews with Irish athletes, tells The 42.
“I just resented the sport, to be honest. I just had enough. It was so intense.
“Through my own mental health journey, I realised that actually running is part of who I am. Going up and doing my local parkrun, and just actually enjoying it, not putting pressure on myself in terms of times or anything, and then slowly but surely, I just realised that running kind of gives my week a bit of structure. I feel good about myself.
“Even just giving yourself a bit of time to get out and be with your own thoughts, that’s what I enjoy doing. I love getting out and having the routine and I think I’m a better person for it.”
Gillick is promoting parkrun and the mental health benefits it offers. The Dubliner is a regular participant along with his family, including his six-year-old daughter, Olivia.
“She loves it. It kind of reminds me of why I got into running: the freedom, you’re just running. There’s no times, it doesn’t matter where you come, where you finish, what time you ran. It’s just that sense of just getting out and running.”
This has been “an unbelievable season for Irish athletics”, Gillick says, from the European Championships in Rome to the Olympic Games in Paris.
“I’m in a very privileged position to be in the mixed zone talking to European champions and Olympic finalists. You never would have thought that. It shows how far we have come. We’ve got more work to do, we can’t rest on our laurels, but it’s been incredible.
“People are watching it on TV, kids are getting inspired. Even my own kids now, they’re all running around thinking they’re Rhasidat Adeleke, Ciara Mageean, Tom Barr. Every sport needs stars, and I think right now, in Irish athletics, we’ve got some fantastic stars. It’s great to see it, and hopefully they’ll inspire the next generation to get involved.”
Legends!
— David Gillick (@DavidGillick) August 9, 2024
Olympic finalists!#Olympics #PARIS2024 #teamireland pic.twitter.com/PgrJqC3V0A
Gillick, who experienced that himself watching Sonia O’Sullivan at the Olympics, believes Ireland will end their wait for a first track medal since the Cork icon in 2000 at LA 2028.
He is backing Adeleke, who finished fourth in the 400m in Paris to “have her day”, for one, but is mindful of tempering overall expectations.
“I definitely think there is a lot of potential for medals,” he says. “I think we’re still looking at one, maybe two. I don’t think we should be getting ahead of ourselves or anything like that.
“An Olympic cycle is a lifetime, it’s four years. In many cases, that could be someone’s athletics career. We just have to see how things roll off the back of this and into Tokyo [World Championships] next year and go from there.”
Gillick is happy being the other side of the fence now, but insists he’ll never lose the feeling of wanting to be out on the track — or the pre-race nerves.
“There’s a part of me that always, for as long as I live, will still want to be out there, but I’m a lot more comfortable now on the sideline. It took me a while.
“The beauty is I can now watch what a performance on the track means to the people in the stands. I’d never really seen that before. There’s friends and family, people who are on that journey with that individual on the track, and when they perform or win a medal, I can see what that means.
“It makes me very proud that I gave my family, friends and my parents a few nights like that.”
David Gillick is a Vhi ambassador. As the presenting partner of parkrun in Ireland, Vhi are highlighting the mental health benefits participation in parkrun can offer, with a resounding 97.2% of parkrunners saying parkrun has had a positive impact on their mental health. Find your nearest parkrun at parkrun.ie.
