Run the Silk Road Marathon was held for the first time on May 26, 2012.

Start and finish of all races at 42.195 m, 10,000 m and 5,000 m were located along the Balykchy-Karakol highway opposite the Issyk-Kul Aurora sanatorium. More than 800 people took part.

Title: First International Marathon of Kyrgyzstan
Slogan: Friendship Marathon
Dedicated to the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Kyrgyz Republic and Japan.
Organizing Committee:
Co-Chairman – Samakov Karganbek (Kyrgyzstan)
Co-Chairman – Sakaguchi Naoto (Japan)
Members of the Organizing Committee:
Olympic Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic
Athletics Federation of the Kyrgyz Republic
Administration of Issyk-Kul region
CAT Company (Bishkek)
“Mainichi Education” Company (Tokyo)

Supported by:
Friendship Group of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic with the Parliament of Japan
Friendship Group of the Parliament of Japan with the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic
Japanese Embassy in Kyrgyz Republic
Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic in Japan

Sponsors:

General sponsor is the “Davos” company
Official Sponsor – Toyota Motor Kazakhstan
Official partner – Turkish Airlines
Sponsors:
Panasonic, SEIKO, Tatsuno Creates Inc., Kreis Corporation, CAT company
Partners:
CAT company, Mainichi education

The Chairman of the Board of the Directorate of International Marathon NGO Melis Nadyrov tells:

2011, right after the tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Ibarat Samakova returned to Kyrgyzstan and came to us with the idea of ​​a marathon event.  This was great idea and we decided to support it. We had an appointment with the Japanese ambassador to Kyrgyzstan – Sin Maruo. He liked the idea of marathon very much and he truly provided huge support. He attracted such famous Japanese companies as TOYOTA, Panasonic and SEIKO as sponsors to the just beginning marathon. I sincerely appreciated to all Japanese who consulted and helped us to organize this event. In 2012 such an event has never been held before, on the territory of independent Kyrgyzstan. Everything was new. Japanese consultants did their best explaining us basic things about marathon. Many thanks to Shinji Matsuda, at the time he was a senior JICA volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and started his own program for visually impaired and blind runners. He was our first consultant.

At the same time we addressed this idea of ​​a marathon to Athletics Federation of Kyrgyz Republic.

Here we were lucky too. President of the Federation Kanat Amankulov, and the Secretary General, Ivan Shcherbakov totally supported us. Now, this became not just a race, but an official sports event. Federation sent results to IAAF. From the very first time we held events according to the international rules of the IAAF, thus ensuring the proper quality of sports competitions.

In 2012, after the first marathon, we decided to continue this positive experience. And we established Directorate of International Marathon NGO, as an organization specializing in sports events. Also, “Run the Silk Road” brand was developed for International market.