Many participants have noted the laissez faire attitude about the race management, saying that it gives the event "the same kind of rawness of spirit that old-style marathons had."

The race has also been known for lack of crowd support, minimal course administration, and salted rye bread instead of gels at water stations.

[1] The marathon track has commonly been in one loop through the central part of the city, down streets such as Nevsky Prospect, and against the background of monuments and buildings including St. Isaac's Cathedral, The Bronze Horseman, Vasilyevsky Island's Arrow, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater, the Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and others.

Pavel Andreyev won for the men in 2:16:26, after running ahead of contenders Aleksy Veselov and Vladimir Ponomaryov.

[9] The winners of the marathon in 2012 were the runners-up from the past year: Hasan Ahagur for men, Vera Trubnikova for women.

The 10K participation grew to 1,607 finishers[11] Kenyan Peter Kwalir took first in the marathon (2:14:30) for men, Russian Tatyana Belkina won for the women (2:44:56).

[citation needed] In the 10K, athletes from St. Petersburg took first: Artur Burtsev for men in 31:02 and Yulia Chizhenko for women in 33:53.

In the 10K, the last year's winners repeated: Artur Burtsev for men in 30:27 and Yulia Chizhenko for women in 34:29.

The winners of the marathon were athletes from the Samara region Yuri Mikhailovich Chechun and Nadezhda Leshchinskaya, who, despite the abnormal heat, showed fast times (2:20:27 and 2:39:57, respectively).