In 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in Japan, and immediately afterward Ibarat Samakova returned to Kyrgyzstan and approached us with the idea of running a marathon. We appealed to the then Japanese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Shin Maruo. He really liked the idea and provided truly unprecedented support. He attracted such well-known Japanese companies as TOYOTA as sponsors of the marathon, which was just beginning. Panasonic and SEIKO. In general, it is worth noting that the citizens of Japan provided great support to us as organizers at that time. Also, Japanese consultants suggested what they could. Many thanks to Shinji Matsuda, at that time he was a senior JICA volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and developed running sports for visually impaired and blind runners. He became our first consultant. In parallel, we approached the relevant athletics federation with the idea of holding a marathon. And here we were lucky — both the President of the federation, Kanat Amankulov, and the General Secretary, Ivan Shcherbakov agreed and participated to it.

Run the Silk Road Marathon was first held on May 26, 2012, as the 1st International Marathon of Kyrgyzstan under the slogan “Marathon of Friendship.” The event commemorated the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Kyrgyz Republic and Japan and attracted over 800 participants competing in 42.195 km, 10 km, and 5 km races around the Issyk-Kul area. From its inception, the marathon was organized in accordance with IAAF international standards, and official results were submitted to the IAAF.

The first marathon in 2012 was a success, so we decided to keep the positive experience going. We created the NPO "Directorate of the International Marathon" to handle mass sports events. The brand "Run the Silk Road" was developed to make it more understandable in the international market.