Franjo Mihalić - The Croatian running great who won the Boston Marathon
While avoiding running, aka tapering, on the Dalmatian coast, I looked into the story of a middle-distance star of the 1940s, 50s and 60s
The modern, elite marathoner is well-rewarded for the admittedly incredible slog they put into training for and then completing 26.2 miles in super-fast times.
While perhaps not rivalling their peers in sports like Formula 1, football or basketball, the runner of today is far better compensated than their illustrious predecessors were.
Take Croatian middle-distance star of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Franjo Mihalić.
The Olympic silver medallist and winner of the 1958 Boston Marathon gave an interview in 2000 in which he expressed his regret at being “born too early”.
“When I won the world's oldest marathon, in Boston in 1958, all I got was a gold medal,” Mihalić said.
“Today the winner gets one hundred thousand dollars and an automobile! If I'd won it two times – that would be enough. Yes, I regret a bit for not being 25 today.”
Mihalić may have lacked the financial advantages of modern international stars, but running gave the Croatian star a lifelong career - and helped him avoid conscription during the Second World War in the process.
This is a man who only started running professionally after his football team nominated him to take part in a cross-country event as he was the fastest player in their side, but who ended up competing against - and beating - the very best in the world.
The beauty of Brac:
Over the last week I have been holidaying on the island of Brac, just off the coast of Split. It was a trip which persuaded me to take a look at the life of one of Croatia’s greatest ever runners.
Although Mihalić himself spent much of his career in Zagreb and Belgrade, both part of the old Yugoslavia during the height of his running career in the late-1940s, 50s and 60s, he would doubtless have enjoyed Split’s many running offerings.
The Riva boardwalk, which passes Split’s beautiful Old Town and its attractive waterfront, is the starting point of many a Croatian runners’ journey.
Elsewhere, one of the best places to run in Split is along the scenic pedestrian paths in the Maryan Forest Park, including up to 800 stairs leading to Telegrin Terrace and some great views, while trail runners should head to the Kozjak and Mosor mountains, around half-an-hour away.
That said, I wouldn’t be being remotely honest if I suggested Michelle and I have spent our time in Croatia frequenting these much-to-be desired running routes.
Instead, with the Great North Run on our horizon this Sunday we took tapering to the next level.
That involved enjoying plenty of the pasta and pizza favoured in an area heavily influenced by Italy - we’re obviously labelling this culinary excess as carb loading!
Split’s Old Town - better than Cleethorpes:
We also enjoyed the sights and sounds of both Split’s Old Town and the array of beautiful islands which dot the Adriatic off the city’s coastline.
Dating back some 1,700 years, the old town in Split is best known for the ancient Diocletian’s Palace from 305 AD.
The palace was built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who intended to use it for his retirement - beats Cleethorpes, eh?
Saying that, Diocletian didn’t have a happy retirement as his Tetrarchy system - which saw the Roman Empire divided between two Emperors - failed. It is widely believed his death in 312 AD was actually suicide.
Many of the buildings of his palace survive though, and in recent years the old town was used in the filming of fantasy series, Game of Thrones.
The importance of Diocletian’s Palace far transcends local significance because of its extraordinary preservation and the buildings of succeeding historical periods built within its walls, but also because the city and its palace continue to live a full life - with people still housed in the Old Town next to ancient buildings and monuments.
Imagine Scots still living in Edinburgh Castle to get an idea of what it’s like.
If the Old Town is stunning, the array of islands within a ferry or speedboat of Split are simply stunning.
Our home last week was Supetar on Brac, home to a host of restaurants, stalls selling gifts honed from Croatian marble and a welcoming pebble beach.
Brac is also home to Bol, a small town which boasts the famed Zlatni rat beach - known as one of the most spectacular in the world for its crystal-clear sea that goes from turquoise blue to dark blue in just 10 to 20 meters.
It’s a sea which transfixes you as you travel around the Adriatic, the dark blue waters capturing part of your soul as you bump over the water on your way to whichever islands, cave or cove is your next destination.
Michelle and I enjoyed the delights of the Blue Cave, where the sunlight creeps through a small opening at the top of the cave to reflect off the white seabed and fill the whole opening with a mesmerising blue hue. We have been swimming everywhere from the crystal blue waters of the Blue Lagoon to the dark ones of the Monk Seal Cave, where one of those rare creatures once found sanctuary. And we marched up to a fortress on the rich and sun-drenched island of Hvar.
I don’t know how all this will work as preparation for one of the world’s most famous half-marathons, but we’ll find out in a few days.
From injury prone cyclist to running sensation:
But enough from the Split Tourist Board, this is a newsletter about running and it’s time to look at the phenomenal career of Franjo Mihalić.
Mihalić’s Olympic and Boston Marathon successes represented the pinnacle of a career which saw him compete across track, marathon and cross-country races, breaking a combined 25 Croatian and later Yugoslavian national records in long-distance track events between 5000m and 25km.
But it was one which saw him start out as a cyclist and footballer.
Born in 1920 in Kutina, Croatia, Mihalić - the tenth of 12 children - moved to Zagreb when he was just three years old.
By 16, he was working as a printing house apprentice, using his first wages to buy a bicycle and then joining the Olympic cycling club.
Mihalić even achieved a number of top ten finishes in national cycling races over the next few years, but also suffered several serious falls and injuries in the process.
It was, then, both fortuitous and seemingly meant to be that he found his way into the world of running.
In 1940, one of the events of the Workers' Sports Games in Zagreb was a cross-country race and, with no obvious entrant available, Mihalić was nominated by his football club as he was their fastest player.
Even though he hadn’t run in a competitive event before, he finished second out of 200 entrants - and soon after he joined the Concordia Zagreb athletics club.
Just months later, the naturally talented Mihalić set his first national record in the 5000 meters, followed shortly by another in the 10,000.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he represented the Independent State of Croatia - winning several international competitions, setting five national records and being named Croatian Sportsman of the Year three times in the process.
Because of his newly found status as a leading athlete, he avoided being drafted into the war effort.
Of course, not everyone was so lucky. His first athletics coach, Milčo Dobrin, was a Jew who was forced to wear a Star of David and barred from attending competitions. Later Dobrin managed to escape to Venezuela, avoiding the hideous fate of so many of his fellow Jews.
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After the end of the war, Mihalić was transferred to Belgrade by the new communist Yugoslav authorities.
International running success swiftly followed, and in 1951 he won the 10,000m at the Mediterranean Games in Alexandria.
He finished 18th in the same event at the following year’s Helsinki Olympics.
Conquering the Boston Marathon:
Victory followed in Paris at the International Cross-Country Championships, and in 1957 he won the Athens and Moscow marathons.
Those wins followed what Mihalić himself described as his greatest sporting achievement at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia where he took silver in the marathon.
He had come into the Games on the back of a stunning - if flawed - time in the Balkan Games Marathon. In winning the event, Mihalić posted a time of two hours 16 minutes and 25 seconds - which would have been the fastest marathon race ever if the course had not been found to be too short.
His Olympic experience almost went south when he fell at a refreshment table, brushing his arms and legs. But perhaps empowered by those early cycling falls, he got to his feet and rejoined the leading pack.
He eventually came home in two hours 26 behind only winner Alain Mimoun of France.
Mihalić’s other career highlight came at the 1958 Boston Marathon, where he beat defending champion John J. Kelley.
His winning time of 2:25:54 was five minutes short of Kelley's course record established the previous year, but was still impressive given the race was held in extremely hot conditions.
Another Olympic appearance - he came 12th in the marathon in Rome in 1960 - followed, before he eventually retired from top level running in 1966.
A successful post-professional career followed with Mihalić participating in 10km runs until his late 70s.
A knee injury eventually put paid to his running on doctor’s orders, but he still managed to switch to racewalking and captured three gold medals in the 5km event at the veteran Balkan Games.
Mihalić died in February 2015 at the ripe old age of 94, but is remembered as one of Croatia’s greatest running sons - even if finances he received didn’t match his achievements.