Olympic sprinter looking forward to Mullingar half
A former Olympic, Irish and European champion sprinter who has switched to club distance running will line up for the start of the Mullingar Half Marathon on St Patrick’s Day.
David Gillick, the two time European indoor champion, three time national champion and world bronze medallist, said he is looking forward to coming to Westmeath, after examining the calendar for a race that suits his training schedule and is on a course that will allow him to post a good time.
Though he was fighting for podium places as an elite and professional athlete, David has more measured ambitions now.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he used a bicycle turbo trainer to keep fit at home and “got into the endurance side of it”.
“I realised I still enjoy running, but I’m not as fast as I once was, plus the shorter sprint training was starting to take a bit of a toll on the body, so I started doing the local parkrun.”
At first he didn’t set a goal for himself and was enjoying getting out on Saturday mornings. But the competitive spirit was still there: “In January of last year, I thought ‘I’m floating along, doing a bit here and a bit there’, so I decided to do more structured training, have a goal, and that was the Dublin Marathon."
“That was completely the other end of the spectrum in terms of my athletic ability, because I was coming from the sprint, which in my case was over in less than 45 seconds, and now I’m going for something that’s more than three hours long. I had never run more than 5k so I was going to the other end.”
Explaining the difference in the disciplines, David said: “Going from sprinting to long distance is like going from GAA to soccer – they’re two different codes. Sprinting is anaerobic, short, fast, high intensity, you’re aiming to push the body where you’re producing lactate and trying to tolerate that lactate. When you go endurance, it’s aerobic, building the lung capacity, and time on the legs – if you’re aiming to do the marathon, it’s a long time running, and I didn’t have that.
“People would say to me, ‘sure you’re a runner’,” assuming that once you’re a runner, you can do every event – [that’s not the case], “but I enjoyed the structure and getting back into a routine and having a goal at the end of it. I did it [Dublin Marathon] and I enjoyed it. I went for three hours, which was kind of crazy, but me being me I wanted to give it a shot (his time was 3:16). I never thought ‘this is what I’m going to do now’, but I really enjoyed Dublin.
“Then, this year has come around and I said I’d do it again. The marathon is not till October – I need something before that. I enjoyed the half marathon that I did last year and I wanted to do another one. I want to do one that’s fairly flat, because that one was fairly hilly last year.
“I came across Mullingar on St Patrick’s Day, the right time of the year, as I want something around springtime, and I thought the history of athletics and Mullingar Harriers, it’s a proud tradition there and it will be well supported.”
David has enjoyed the new challenge of distance running. When he set himself a target of three hours for the Dublin Marathon, he knew it was a “stretch” but he “wanted to see where he was”. He says he was on target for about two thirds of the race, but lost around a minute per kilometre over the last 16km.
In Mullingar he plans to go with the 1.25 or 1.30 pacers (who include Evan McCormack and Ollie Geoghegan). “If we could slide in somewhere around that, I’d be happy. I looked at the course and spoke to a few people who did it before, and it’s a nice route, and that is important, because you want to enjoy it, you don’t want to make things really difficult for yourself, and then there’s the crowd as well.
“That’s one thing that struck me, coming from the world of track athletics, where it’s more intense, more focused, but at the races around the country people are out there encouraging you. I’ve gone to various road races over the years and supported people, but I never really knew what the impact was; now when I’m running, when you’re in bits, you look up and you connect with someone who you don’t even know, and they’re like, ‘well done, keep it going’. It means the world, it really gives a push. So, if people are reading this, do get out on Paddy’s Day and make sure you support and cheer people on, because it means the world to them when they’re in the depths of hell!
“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve really enjoyed, from a science perspective, changing my whole physiology, trying to become an endurance athlete, and for anyone that might be out there thinking about doing it, it’s a great thing, a great target, and a great achievement. The half marathon is definitely something we could all have a go at. The marathon is a lot longer. People say ‘it’s just double’, but it’s not really. A half marathon is a great distance to aim for, whether you run, you walk, you run/walk, whatever it is. It’s very empowering, and regardless of the time, we all have our own Olympics, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s an hour and a half or it’s three hours, it’s irrelevant. It’s all down to you.
“I think having a short term goal keeps you honest, keeps you focused as well. I’m looking forward to the day and getting the family down, and hopefully I won’t be walking past them!”