Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida

Apalachee Regional Park is a Leon County multi-use park at 7550 Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee, built around one of the nation's few courses designed specifically for cross country running.

The Leon County Parks and Recreation page describes a multi-surface course with numerous course and distance options through rolling hills, lowlands and pine forests, designed so runners can train on several types of surfaces. When no running event is using it, the trail is open to the public for hiking, running and biking. The rest of the Apalachee Parkway site is county recreation: grass fields with American football goals that are also used for soccer and lacrosse, a parking area that accommodates more than 3,500 vehicles at one time, and a remote control airplane and helicopter airfield. Leon County opened the ARP Dog Park, with the county's first public dog agility course, on May 6, 2025.

The county's own pages differ on field lighting. The main park page says the four multi-purpose fields include two that are lighted, while the Leon County park index entry describes four lighted fields; both are shown below as posted.

Leon County built the park over more than 15 years on land that was formerly part of its solid waste operations as a landfill, adding the cross country course through phased improvements.

A February 10, 2026 Leon County agenda item says the county began transforming the former landfill more than 15 years ago, and that long-term planning and phased improvements turned Apalachee Regional Park into a signature community asset with a multi-surface course and flexible configurations capable of hosting events at scale. County Administrator Vincent Long, in a January 2026 county release, described the same history as transforming an inactive landfill into a premier cross country venue over the past 15 years.

Partnerships shaped the course early. The county's 2012 annual report records that the Apalachee Regional Park cross country facility was significantly improved that year with a permanent stage, a power source, decorative fencing, landscaping and limited trail widening, made possible through partnerships with Leon County Schools, Florida State University and the Gulf Winds Track Club. Those improvements gave rise to nine events at the Tallahassee facility that year, nearly double the year before.

Apalachee Regional Park has hosted state, college and national cross country championships, including the first NCAA Division I national championships ever held in Florida.

The county's February 2026 agenda item lists the record below and reports that, since 2013, the park has hosted more than 75 local, state, regional and national championships and meets, welcomed more than 80,000 athletes and runners, and generated more than $84 million in direct spending for Leon County, figures the county presents as its own tally.

On January 10, 2026, Leon County hosted the World Athletics Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park, the event's first return to the United States since Boston in 1992.

The Leon County agenda item notes it was only the third time the championships were held on U.S. soil, after East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1984 and Boston in 1992, and that World Athletics entry lists showed 485 athletes from 52 countries and federations. The event was broadcast to more than 70 nations, NBC Sports presented live U.S. coverage on Peacock and CNBC, and more than 10,000 spectators came to the park, with spectator tickets and Fun Run registrations bought from all 50 states and 12 countries. The county's event release listed gates opening at 7:45 a.m. and races beginning at 9:45 a.m.

The final count came in above the early projections. Leon County's April 7, 2026 release says the championships drew more than 15,000 people, including nearly 11,000 visitors from outside the county, and generated more than $6 million in total economic impact, exceeding early projections by more than 50 percent. The February agenda item had reported preliminary projections of more than $4 million in direct impact. The same April release reports that the county presented a $10,000 check to Leon County Schools at Montford Middle School from Fun Run proceeds, for the district's cross country and track and field teams.

Leon County is pursuing a long-term arrangement to make Apalachee Regional Park the permanent home of the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, but no commitment has been approved.

In the February 10, 2026 agenda item, Leon County staff asked the Board to authorize travel for the Chairman to accompany the County Administrator to meetings with World Athletics leadership, possibly at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland in March 2026. Staff stated it was not seeking approval of any binding multi-year commitment, that any hosting framework and its fiscal impact would come back to the Board first, and that while a 2029 date exists in the championship cycle, staff would also explore an earlier opportunity such as 2027.

The park's everyday use does not depend on that bid. Between meets, the Apalachee Parkway course stays open to Tallahassee runners, hikers and cyclists, and the fields, dog park and airfield serve Leon County residents, according to the county park page.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, using the Leon County Parks and Recreation page and park index entry for Apalachee Regional Park, the county's 2012 annual report, the February 10, 2026 Board agenda item and the county's January and April 2026 releases.