The only Half Marathon I've done was the Disney Princess Half this past February, which I didn't do for time, just fun, so I wanted to find a Half I could try and make my first "real" Half. I stumbled upon the Fighting Seabee's Half on a website and found more info on it on Facebook and it looked like a good option for me. It wasn't far from my house, was listed as a flat & fast course, low entry fee, & there were a lot of details indicating that the RD really cares about the runners so that made me want to try this race.
The parking was pretty easy- they said ahead of time on Facebook that there would be a limited number of spaces at the starting line and that the majority of parking would be around the corner at the Quonset O Club so I just opted for that since I figured the other lot would be full. It was a fairly short walk from the lot to the starting line area (10 mins or less). I hadn't registered online ahead of time and when I got to the registration table I didn't realize they didn't accept credit cards. The volunteers, however, were nice enough to say I could just pay on the website later or mail in a check which I thought was very trusting and kind of them. After the race I ended up getting my checkbook in the car and writing them a check that day so that they knew I wasn't going to take advantage of their generosity. (The Half was only $55 on race day which is a great low price considering all the aid stations and the food options after the race)
There were only 8 port-a-pottys at the starting line, so the line for the bathroom right before race time was very long and I saw some people looking around to see if there was any other possible spot to go to the bathroom because they were afraid they would miss the start. The race was fairly small compared to what I'm used to for 5ks (138 in the half, 99 in the full and 66 in the 5k), but I guess 8 port-a-pottys were just not enough.
The RD gave his speech at the beginning saying he didn't care who wins, just cares that we all cross the finish line. And he also put his phone number on many of the course signs so that we could contact him out there if need be. It made me feel a little safer about being out on the course by myself since there were very few runners around me at parts of the race. The course was very flat and the only "incline" was an overpass around 9.5 miles but it wasn't a 'hill' by any means. It wasn't a particularly scenic race (mostly business parks and long stretches of road) but there were a few brief spots where we ran near the Bay which was nice. The course was very well marked with signs and volunteers who were encouraging and good about letting people know which way the Half/Full should be running. There were plenty of aid stations full of water and some with a Gatorade-type drink that you'd often hit twice because of the course loops. (I heard there was going to be bananas at the tables too but I don't recall seeing any). I also saw a few port-a-pottys out on the course which was nice. Not much crowd support since it's a pretty small race, but there were a few people who would drive around to different areas of the course and ring bells and cheer people on which helped. Traffic was very light and I never felt unsafe while running on the roads since traffic was separated from runners by cones, and there were hardly any people out driving around that area anyways.
I got a nice medal as I crossed the finish line and the race was chip timed so they were able to immediately print out a receipt with my stats on it (time finished, age group place, gender place etc), and the volunteers even scored me a small tech shirt even though I hadn't registered ahead of time which was very nice of them (can't say enough good things about the volunteers at this race). There was red party pizza, chips, pretzels, cookies, bananas, and water afterwards so we were definitely well fed. Overall I was very pleased with my first Half Marathon experience! I finished 2:32:33 and wasn't in the bottom 20% so I'll take it! It was only the 3rd annual year for this race so I'm hoping word will spread and next year's will hopefully be even more race participants and more crowd support.

Pros: Flat course, low registration cost, amazing volunteers & RD, nice medal, tech shirt, good parking, plenty of water stations, good food options
Cons: Not many port-a-pottys at start, not super scenic, smaller crowd size