PKO Białystok Half Marathon

Super organizer!!

Great organized Half Marathon in beautiful place.

One of the best halfmarathon in Poland. Well organized, good quality of your runner pack - always tshirt, nice medal, 4 water/iso station on track and most of it lot of people cheering during the full race! Few kilometers you run beetwen forest, almost all route is closed for traffic. At the fibish line you get beer, other drinks and dishes from local cousine (kiszka and babka!). I started there already 3 times and everytime get my PB. Recommended!

Flat and nice route

My first run in Poland. As a foreigner, the main website comes in five languages; Polish, English, Russian, German and Lithuanian. This was great as the registration was simple and straight forward. However, once registered, all information sent via email was solely in Polish which was a bit frustrating having to use Google translate to make sense of details such as parking, start area, pick up of start bib etc. The recommended parking was at a shopping mall named Atrium Biala, roughly 2km from the start area and 2,2km from the finish area - the was free of charge. It would have also been possible to park closer for free, though but a bit more complicated due to road closures. From the Atrium Biala it was a straight line walking to the expo and start area. I picked up my bib Sunday morning before the race which went smoothly without any queues. No ID needed it seemed. The start of the race was rolling, meaning that first the elites were sent off, and subsequently every couple of minutes another wave. Being in the 2:00 hour wave, it took around 10 min to pass the start line (around 4000 runners). The route itself is pretty flat - overall gain of 94 meters over the 21k according to my Garmin watch. I noticed 5 water stations on the way, which was as described on the website. A few of them had Powerade and bananas. (10km and 15km). The route never felt crowded, this despite running with the 2:00 hour bus. More than average amount of spectators and cheerers which was very nice. Around km 4 and km 19, there were music blasted from speakers which helped with to give some energy kick. The finish area was a tad too small in my opinion but nothing to criticise. You could get water, Powerade, bananas and warm food (pasta etc.) - medals to all finishers. Overall, a great race and course which was well organised. Can only recommend and will be doing this again in the future.