Sold-out St. George Marathon to welcome runners home with brand new bathroom facility

ST. GEORGE — With a sold-out St. George Marathon on the horizon, the city's Park and Community Services department is preparing for the event with something all runners will appreciate: new bathrooms.

"We're constructing a whole new restroom complex that will feature a covered restroom facility that will have both family-style with unisex-style units, and it will also have an event-style restroom where you'll have multiple stalls," said Shane Moore, director of Parks and Community Services.

The new bathroom facility is at Vernon Worthen Park, which also serves as the finish line for the St. George Marathon. Once completed, it will replace the old facility that Moore said was not quite on the historic registry but was "getting up there."

"It was built in the 1990s," he said, agreeing that "vintage" would be a good descriptor of the former restrooms.

Ground was broken for the new facility in February, and Moore said that it is part of a much larger series of projects around town that was voted on by residents.

"In 2023, city voters passed a general obligation recreation parks and trails bond, and this is one of the projects that we had promised to do at that time," he said.

The bond was passed by 63% of voters and is set for 25 years, granting the city $29 million for the funding of multiple outdoor recreation-related projects. Moore said Vernon Worthen Park, as a whole, is getting a much-needed facelift.

"We have built a bandstand down in the area near the new marathon gazebo," he said. "This year, we have it in the budget to replace the tiles on the playground. The entire park is kind of getting a makeover."

The bathrooms are set to be completed in September, just one month before 10,000 runners cross the finish line for the 50th anniversary of the St. George Marathon. Moore told KSL the timing of the restroom completion wasn't intentionally aligned with the marathon, but it is good timing, nonetheless.

While construction is underway, four portable restrooms are available nearby for park users, and come marathon day, there will likely be many, many more enclosed toilets that will line the park to welcome runners home.

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