[10] Swiss wheelchair athlete Marcel Hug claimed his seventh Berlin Marathon victory with a time of 1:24:56, while another Swiss wheelchair athlete, Catherine Debrunner, won the race with a time of 1:36:47 in her marathon debut.

[2][3][6] Also competing was Ethiopian runner Guye Adola, the defending champion, who had won the previous year's marathon with a time of 2:05:45.

[8][20] During the summer, Assefa had run a number of 10,000-metre track races before focusing her attention back on marathon training.

[2] In addition, Kenyan runner Rosemary Wanjiru debuted at the marathon distance with this race.

[26] Intending to run a fast first half, Eliud Kipchoge started the race at a blistering pace that only a few runners were able to keep up with, including Ethiopian runner Andamlak Belihu and defending champion Guye Adola.

[9] The runners then passed the halfway point with a time of 59:51, which was well under world-record pace, as Kipchoge had taken 96 seconds longer to complete the first half during his record-breaking 2018 run.

[12][27] Kipchoge's finish time of 2:01:09 ended up shaving 30 seconds off his previous world record.

[9] Belihu finished in 2:06:40 and came in fourth, while Adola never recorded a 40 km (25 mi) split time.

[19] Though she was 74 seconds behind the leaders by the halfway point, D'Amato's split of 1:09:27 was still on target to break the U.S.

[26][3] Amongst the women, there was no clear leader for most of the race, with defending champion Manuela Schär, U.S. athlete Susannah Scaroni, and debut marathoner Catherine Debrunner keeping pace with each other until the final sprint.

[3][25] Debrunner emerged victorious with a time of 1:36:47, breaking Schär's streak of five Berlin Marathon wins.