The marathon race required an impressive finish venue and the organizing committee selected the Panathenaic Stadium. More than 550 people laboured for months to clean the site and rebuild the stadium, a project that became a race against time to make sure that everything would be ready for the race. More than 350 quarries supplied stones, including the famous marble quarries on Mt Penteli and the poros quarries in Piraeus. In early 1896, though, the heavy snow on Mt Penteli made it impossible to work. The committee decided to revet only key parts of the stadium in marble; wooden benches, painted white to resemble marble, would accommodate the majority of the spectators.