I've ran this race for the past three years. The Carowinds Run and Ride Series hold four four races over the course of two days: Saturday is the 1 mile and 5k races, Sunday has the Quarter Marathon (formally the 10k) and the Half Marathon. I believe Carowinds moved from the 10k to quarter marathon to make it easier to direct traffic for the two races. An extra half mile after an initial 10k in distance isn't a big deal, I guess. So, in other words QUARTER marathon = ONE lap; HALF marathon = TWO laps.

The Half Marathon and Quarter Marathon runners meet up at the same starting line. You have to pay attention to the announcer to know when you are taking off. The last three years, the half marathon runners take off first with anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes later the quarter marathon (or 10k) runners take off.

For the first mile and a half, you are running outside the park, along the parking lot, so it is very flat. It's once you go through the main entrance of Carowinds where the fun begins. At the entrance, various Carowinds employees cheer you on, you might spot a Peanuts character at this particular spot, and you can hear music being pumped out by nearby thrill ride attractions. I will say running underneath the Fury 325 is really cool, especially if the crew is testing the roller coaster. The third mile has you in the dinosaur area, which is an area that you may have to pay extra to see if you ever visit Carowinds. The dinosaurs come to life, move their heads and limbs as you run by, they roar or scream at various times, and Carowinds has a variety of these animatronic "thunder lizards" on display to include the T-Rex and my favorite, the Triceratops.
Once you leave the Dinosaur area, you go past different thrill rides and get to see what Carowinds has to offer during its park hours. You also get to run on a few behind closed gates paths that aren't open to the public; behind-the-scenes stuff that always fascinates me.
Mile five and beyond take place outside the park itself but still on its property. At the gate connecting the park to the outside road is an aid station that has water AND gatorade. I don't remember gatorade at the other aid stations. You run through the Carowinds campground and cabin area, where the other hills exist (there's an uphill at the Dinosaur area, but the dinos do a good job of distracting you from that fact).
Once you hit the six mile mark, you can see the finish line off to the right, but you still have to go straight for a bit and turn around. Wasn't a big fan of that, to be honest.
At the finish line, there's volunteers handing out medals, music playing, the announcer telling everyone who you are and where you're from (or registered from) when you cross, and there's a decent spread of food and refreshing beverages. I really like how the Run and Ride Series makes the medals different for each race, but they were still on the same theme. In fact, each of the medals had a little magnet in them to connect the medals in line; they were designed to show different Peanuts characters on a roller coaster.

There are several options when buying your race ticket. You can get it with or without a park ticket included. Since I'm a season pass holder, I got my race ticket without the park ticket which saved me some money. The race shirt was a tech shirt which is always a good thing in my book, and this year's was modeled off of Charlie Brown's shirt.

Here's a video showing some of the highlights of running in this race (watch it twice if you're doing the half marathon?): https://youtu.be/nuXs7m2NpRg