Laurel James
Laurel and Frank Shorter
“Life is a challenge. And if you can’t enjoy that, you’re in trouble.” Laurel James, founder of the Seattle-based running retailer Super Jock ‘n Jill and mastermind behind the 1984 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials race, does not mince words. James entered the nascent running-retail scene in 1975, and quickly cemented herself as a visionary female entrepreneur, race director, and community pillar in the running world and beyond.
James grew up in rural Iowa, the oldest of seven children. “I learned to cook starting at ages 4 and 5. I was the other mother,” she recalled of her youth. She was an energetic kid, always on the move, but did not have an organized competitive outlet until high school when she and a few friends started a tumbling team.
In her 30s, as a single mother of five boys, James thought she would pursue a career in real estate or insurance, but neither industry suited her. For years she had run casually, not knowing that running would eventually become her whole world. In the early 1970s, Pat Tyson, who had run track and cross-country at the University of Oregon before coaching Laurel’s sons, came over for dinner, then moved into the James’s home – and stayed there for six years. (As James observed, “I had all boys, so what was another guy going to do in my house? I always had guys around.”)
Pat Tyson, Laurel, and Steve Prefontaine
Tyson introduced James to his former college roommate, Steve Prefontaine, with whom James and her sons had a meaningful relationship until his untimely death in May 1975. Not long after that, as James recollected, “I went home and I said to my mom, ‘I’m going to start my own business!’ and she shook her finger at me and goes, ‘Oh no, you’ll lose everything you’ve ever had.’”
In November 1975, James ignored her mother’s concerns and used $10,000 alongside the literal in-house labor of her five sons to open a running-retail store in Seattle, WA. At the time, running-specific retailers were uncommon – if not unheard of – yet James saw an opportunity in an empty converted gas station. James remembered that when she started seeking early investment in the business, “People just said, ‘What are you thinking? First of all, you’re a woman, and now you’re going to buy shoes?’”
As if the concept, location, and female ownership of this running store weren’t odd enough, James bestowed the business with a standout name: Super Jock ‘n Jill. Her initial idea was The Jock Shop to acknowledge her brood of boys; however, she remembered thinking, “‘That’s not right, because I’m in it. We should have a girl’s name in there too.’ So, Jock ‘n Jill. Super Jock ‘n Jill, that’s it!”
Super Jock ‘n Jill became the go-to running hotspot in Seattle, in part because James saw an opportunity on a lakeside path. She started organizing weekly timed runs around Seattle’s Green Lake, and had a podiatrist host a free advice clinic at the store on Thursday evenings. (To this day, the store’s Green Lake location hosts weekly group runs and twice-weekly evening sessions with local physical therapists.) “We had a lot of fun,” James reflected. “I hope other people who are retailers have as much fun as I did.”
The store has been a Pacific Northwest mainstay for many prominent runners over the years, including Arthur Lydiard, Grete Waitz, Seb Coe, Don Kardong, and Fred Lebow. These legends became acquainted with James through her business, but became friends with her because, well, she’s Laurel. “I never to this day can think of anybody I went out to find,” she recalled. “They just became part of the gang.”
Super Jock ‘n Jill was the first sponsor of the Seattle Marathon, and James was involved with the race – including as race director – for 40 years. James’s ingenuity ultimately permeated Seattle city limits, and in the late-1970s and early-1980s Super Jock ‘n Jill helped organize and manage over 100 events per year in the Pacific Northwest.
James’s race-management experience and enduring tenacity allowed her to see an opportunity for Washington’s capital city of Olympia to become the precursor of Olympic glory. When bidding opened to host the inaugural U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, James threw her experience, grit, and connections behind Olympia, which ultimately won out over major metropolises such as New York, Buffalo, Los Angeles, and Kansas City.
Laurel and Jared Leto as Steve Prefontaine
With her son Brent as executive director, James was characteristically committed to making the marathon-trials race an undeniable success. In many ways, the small-town atmosphere worked in her favor, as the community united around the race. “Community effort is so important,” James said. “That’s the way I always ran things. I would always try to get people involved. I wanted them to be part of it.”
This past May, James attended the 40th reunion of that 1984 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. About 60 of the 196 women who finished the race returned to Olympia for the weekend, plus, of course, James and other event organizers. “It was just so much fun to see that crowd of people again. Forty years later, they’re still celebrating what we did.” According to James’s son, Allen, Des Linden – who attended the reunion as a de facto connection between the past, present, and future of women’s marathoning – was hamming it up with James, marveling at the youthful vigor and charisma of the octogenarian originator of Olympia’s Olympic moment.
James’s son, Chet, began managing Super Jock ‘n Jill in 1981. In 1997 he bought the business, and in 2014 opened a second location in Redmond, WA. James, pondering the store’s enduring success in the face of her mother’s admonition that it would be her downfall, mused, “I [would] want to say to my mom, ‘Next year it’s 50 years [since the store opened], and the business is still doing well.’”
Again, not mincing words, she said, “Sometimes you have to follow your dreams. That’s just all there is to it.”
Sarah Franklin is a writer, runner, and mother living outside of Boston. Her running-related musings take shape @the_runtrovert on Instagram.
