Category by category, here's a quick breakdown:

SWAG: If you like swag, this is a great race for you. With your entry, you'll get a hooded sweatshirt (it's very festive!) along with a race medal at the finish line and it has a really fun design! Definitely a great medal to add to your collection if you're looking for variety.

AID STATIONS: There was water around the halfway mark on the course, and I was very grateful to the volunteers for standing out in the cold to hand us out cups. At the finish line, Orange Theory had a tent and was offering bottled water. Thinking this was all there was, we left right from that tent. We later learned that there was some other food offerings (I believe fruit and donuts?) available in the gazebo where the earlier race announcements had been made.

COURSE SCENERY: I am 100% biased on this section because I love running around Carmel. I've got a lot of great memories from other races in the area, so running on a path that brings back so many memories for me was really, really fun. Even if you aren't someone with memories attached to Carmel, you'll enjoy this course.

ELEVATION DIFFICULTY: It's Carmel, there are some "hills." They're pretty subtle as long as you've previously trained on hills.

PARKING/ACCESS: Very easy to find parking near the start/finish area. We parked in the Police Office parking lot, and it was a minute walk over to the start and finish. No big deal! There was plenty of parking in the surrounding area, so I wouldn't worry about parking even if you chose to come closer to start time.

RACE MANAGEMENT: Race management was meh in my opinion. While we got details about where to park, when the race would begin, and things of that nature, I felt like the communication overall was lacking. Nobody specified that runners should line up based on pace, so it was really difficult to actually run in the first mile. Another complaint I had about the race management was that we didn't have some critical information like where to find food after. Overall, though, it wasn't the worst race experience I've ever had.

There was no EXPO, packet pick up just took place the morning of the race.

Overall, this race was okay but not one that I'd do again or recommend. We chose it since it was in Carmel and fell on my birthday, plus I love sweatshirts! The race management's communication and lack of corralling by pace are what would hold me back from doing this race again.