I'll be honest - I finally ran one of these franchise half-marathons under the impression that there would be lots of free giveaways. This series attracts tons of runners and indeed was the largest race in which I've ever participated.
Admittedly, the EXPO the days before was great and had lots of vendors giving out samples (in exchange for your e-mail address) and selling running-related apparel at discount. Otherwise, the swag was mediocre to average. You get a shirt and trophy with registration (about $85 unless you run on behalf of St. Jude Children's Hospital and raise $500).
Your wave is assigned based on your estimated mile-time at sign-up. Waves are released every 2 minutes. You could very reasonably start 30 minutes after the first wave. There are fill-up stations at about every 2 mile markers. Every other fill-up station had Gatorade and SIS gels in addition to the regular water hand-outs. The course is fairly flat and a good candidate for a PR.
It's clear that the budget went mostly to pay for the bands at every mile marker. While it was a cool experience to be pumped up every 10-15 minutes, you only really get to hear them for a short session. At the end of the race, you get a gatorade, milk, banana, Pringles, and granola bar, which is fairly modest finish-fare.
They booked Everclear on a large stage and had lots of food trucks selling snacks.
Logistics are kind of difficult because of the race's popularity. If you want to avoid the issue with hotels booking-up and running out of room, make the decision early to sign up and reserve your room close to the start/finish line.