I signed up for the 2014 Carmel Half Marathon mostly on a whim. I had a couple of friends doing the race and had been battling IT band issues from my winter training. I cannot comment on the expo because I had a friend pick up my packet. I was excited about the course because I had heard pretty good things about it. Starting and finishing at the Palladium made for an impressive backdrop. I had decided to not put everything on the line in the beginning of the race as I have in the past. I knew it wasn't going to be a PR day (1:29), so I started conservative. I was hitting 7:30 min/mile pace easily and was feeling good after 3 miles so I took the pace to a 7:15 and bounce between 7:00 and 7:15 the rest of the race. This was my first race that I had negative splits! This was a good race, there was plenty of crowd support and the aid stations were not too far apart. If you are looking for a good spring race, the Carmel half or full is a good option.