This year, they moved the race back from mid April to late March to hope for cooler weather. In mid April in Indiana, the weather can get a little too warm. I ran the marathon in 2016 and I was able to run a course PR of 3:02:12 but it got warm that day and could have probably gone sub 3 on a better weather day. So for 2018, the race was moved to March 31st. To mark the occasion, registration fee for the first few days of registration was $31 for either the marathon or half marathon.
For the first year, the expo was held at Carmel High School Field House. There was enough space for bib pickup and the vendors who was present. It did seem bigger than at previous locations.
one of the interesting things that Carmel did this year was they took your goal time that you submitted when you registered, and made you a custom pace band that you could put on your wrist during the race. The swag for this years race featured a good looking race shirt as well as a sweet finishers medal.
This was also the first year of a new course for this race and I really liked it. I thought it was better than years past and if you avoided a lot of serious weaving, you should be able to run pretty close to the exact distance. Race date for next years race is March 30, 2019. Registration has not been opened yet but I look forward to seeing if they offer a similar discount as they did for this years race. If so, look for me to sign up for the full marathon in 2019. The earlier race date worked out well this year as temps were perfect for a marathon, cool but windy as well. Everything with the race went off without any problems and the changes that were made were awesome. Look forward to coming back in the future.