Prior to the event, Stepan Kiselev and Iskander Yadgarov had promoted the idea of a duel between the two on social media, with the organizers of the marathon casting it as a professional versus amateur contest.

Yadgarov, a programmer at Yandex, said he would take on professional Russian marathon runners, with national champion Kiselev serving as his role model.

Competitions were held at the sports base of the local Military Institute of Physical Culture, where a 1.7 km long lap with a height difference of 200 m. A total of 59 participants (34 men and 25 women) from 14 regions of Russia came to the start.

In February 2019, three of the four Russian walking champions (Shirobokov, Sharypov, Afanasyeva) received warnings from RUSADA for forbidden cooperation with the trainer Viktor Chegin, who was suspended for life in 2016 for numerous doping violations of his athletes.

Another champion, Elena Lashmanova, trained for a long time under the guidance of Chegin, and from 2014 to 2016 she was suspended from the competition due to a positive doping test.

The inaugural Russian Trail Championships was held on 6 July in Karpinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, as part of the 24th Konzhak Mountain Marathon.

In 2015, the IAAF officially recognized trail running as an athletics discipline and the Russian Ministry of Sports followed the body's lead with a national-level decision in 2017.

Around 1,400 people entered the non-championship element of the race and the official championship winners were beaten by Yevgeny Markov (2:57.54), Antonina Yushina (3:35.13) and Anna Medvedeva (3:58.58), who had not been nominated by their region.

The Russian Relay Championships was held from 8–9 September in Adlersky City District at the stadium of the Yunost sports complex.

The 13th Russian Long Distance Mountain Running Championship took place on 30 October in Krasnaya Polyana, Krasnodar Krai.