On August 10, 1956, Dr. Arne Suominen of Del Ray Beach, Fla., challenged smokers and nonsmokers to race up and down Pikes Peak, a 26-mile (42 km) race, in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the discovery of America's most famous mountain by Zebulon Montgomery Pike.

The 56-year-old Suominen, a Finnish former marathon champion and outspoken critic of tobacco, wanted to prove that smoking diminished one's physical endurance.

Lou Wille, champion of two Pikes Peak races in the late 1930s and a two-pack-a-day smoker, was likely to be the biggest threat to Suominen's hypothesis.

[2] It was widely rumored that Jecker's motivation came from an American Tobacco Association offer to reward a victorious smoker with a tidy sum of $20,000.

The Pikes Peak Ascent race has twice incorporated the World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge competition, first in 2006 then again in 2010.

[9] At the time the ascent was canceled, the race directors were still hopeful that the marathon could be held, due to the limited number of runners in the marathon and the comparatively lower level of logistics required at the summit, since runners would be making their own way down the mountain.

[9] Eventually, the race organizers announced that the marathon would be held, with coronavirus considerations, including canceling or paring down related events, requiring masks or other face coverings before and after the race, enforcing social distancing regulations at the start and finish, starting the runners in small waves,[c] and eliminating some aid stations.

Although the average grade of the slope is 11%, some sections are much steeper because the central portion of the race is relatively flat.

The USDA Forest Service limits the number of runners to 1,800 for the ascent and 800 for the marathon, and the race registration typically fills in one or two days.

The 2018 Ascent was run on a shortened course of 7.6 miles, finishing at Barr Camp, due to inclement weather being forecast.