The Race: The Inside Track on the Ruthless World of Elite Athletics

An unflinching account of life as a world-class athlete, where training brutality meets hidden costs.

'A raw account of how savagely hard it is to be world class.' DERVAL O'ROURKE

'A story of triumph, record breaking and joy erased by injury, doubt, despair and darkness. A fascinating insight into the life of a world-class athlete.' JOHN TREACY

In The Race, David Gillick, one of Ireland’s most successful 400m runners and best-loved athletics analysts, shares the inside story of life on the track. Dive into the real world of elite athletics where the stakes are high, the margins razor-thin and the cost often hidden.

From long odds to scarce funding, sky-high expectations and a constant fight to stay in the game mentally and physically, enter a world of brutal training, pressure to perform, burnout, and the ever-present shadow of doping and disillusionment.

Candid, compelling and written with clarity and bite, The Race goes beyond the medals to ask what happens when your entire life is defined by speed and what’s left when the race is over.

David Gillick is one of Ireland’s most successful athletes. He helped push the boundaries of sprinting by winning two European Championships over 400m while consistently competing with some of the fastest one-lap athletes in the world, resulting in Irish records and a 6th place finish in the World Championships. After retiring from athletics, David competed in MasterChef, wrote two cookbooks and now works in sports reporting.

Cathal Dennehy is a freelance sports journalist and a two-time winner of the award for Irish broadsheet sports writer of the year. He specialises in writing on athletics and Olympic sports.