Marathon Park in Olympia

Located just below the Washington State Capitol campus, Marathon Park is connected by walking and biking trails to the campus as well as other parks on the waterfront. Its relative size is small but has good parking, restroom facilities and trail access. Most pass right through the park on a jog or walk. The history is interesting. Marathon Park was constructed in 1970 by placing 58,000 cubic yards of fill material in Capitol Lake. The park earned its name when the City of Olympia hosted the U.S. time trials for the first Women's Olympic Marathon, in 1984.

Olympia competed against Los Angeles, Buffalo and New York City for the privilege of hosting the first U.S. Womens Olympic Marathon Trials. New York newspapers howled when The Big Apple lost to Olympia, but the site selection committee stood firm. Washington's capital city offered a scenic racecourse, mild temperatures, clean air and minimal traffic. It was a small town willing to make a big fuss over getting to host the trials. And the name Olympia didn't hurt, a name it shared with the site in Greece where the ancient Olympic Games were staged for more than a thousand years.

On the morning of May 12, 1984, some 50,000 spectators lined the marathon route, along with reporters and television crews from as far away as Japan. More than 3,000 volunteers had pitched in to make the race happen: marking the course, staffing aid stations, sprucing up college dorm rooms where the marathon athletes were housed. From a pancake breakfast for thousands to school bands performing along the route, the community's day in sports history came off exactly as planned. Two hundred and thirty-eight powerful women, ages 16 to 54, surged out onto the racecourse as soon as the starting gun sounded. All but forty-one of the runners succeeded in reaching the finish, including two pregnant runners who came in last but won the hearts of the widely cheering crowd.

Joan Benoit, who had set a world record the year before, was first across the finish line with a time of 2:31:04. When second-place finisher Julie Brown and third-place runner Julie Isphording followed within the next 82 seconds, America had its very first women's Olympic Marathon team. Winner Joan Benoit went on to win the Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles, where Norway's Grete Waitz earned the silver and Rosa Mota of Portugal took the bronze.