I ran the half this year in conjunction with the full on the following day to complete the Liberty Bell Challenge. I have run the half two other times, in 2016 and 2018.

EXPO: Easy to get to and in a huge room at the convention center. Plenty of vendors and it's easy to navigate through to get your BIB and race swag! You get an an awesome tech shirt, which I love and wear often when I'm out for a training run.

PRE - RACE and RACE: Because I live 30-45 mins away we always drive in before the race and we have not found it an issue to find a parking garage or street parking to park the car and walk to the start. If you are not local there are plenty of hotels to stay over at fairly close to the start and then you can just walk over. However like with any bigger race, be prepared to go through a security line to get into the Corral area. If you arrive early you should have no issues getting through there. If you need the bathroom before the race, like me, give yourself extra time because even though there are a lot of them, you will still be waiting in line for a while. After that you just need to hop in your corral and wait until it's time to GO! Lot's of energy before hand and plenty of room to move around and stretch. Depending on which corral you are in will determine how long from the start time you will get to start. Start time is 7:30, a half hour later than the marathon start the next day. I was in the gray corral and went off 10-15 mins past the start time. Your time doesn't start counting until you physically go over the start mat though :) The newly designed half marathon brings you though the different areas of Philadelphia across many different land marks for the first 10 miles, then out to Fairmount Park area and then Kelly Drive to bring it home and spectators line the course through out the entire race!! It's fast and mostly flat with a few areas that have an incline. There are mile markers at every mile, water stops, free gel giveaways, and plenty of bathrooms to use. This is a high quality half marathon and I'm so glad I've had the chance to run it 3 times already. It's also very nice that it's not on the same day as the full. The half is on Saturday and it's only the half that is racing - I love that!
I highly recommend this race if you are up for running a fun, fast race through Philly!!