I find that carb loading -- as long as you're not stuffing yourself til you explode -- is pretty helpful, especially since this is your first race of this distance! I would recommend you start purposefully eating more carbs on Friday and then eat lots on Saturday. I typically will do a lot of pretzels, and then pasta with fish and veggies for dinner in the evening -- actually, I religiously eat mac and cheese, tuna, and sweet peas. I haven't eaten anything else before a long run or half/full marathon since last June. On days before races/long runs, I typically will eat ~1600-1700 calories even though I'm not running (typically my net is set at 1480).

Also: HYDRATE!! You should be peeing all the time, at every opportunity, the 2 days before race day! I find this to be the most difficult part of race prep as sometimes I forget to drink anything for hours at a time. Oops.

Also a unique suggestion: Sometimes I find that having one beer with dinner the night before can help me relax, get to sleep a bit easier, and helps, uh... get the traffic moving a little quicker on race morning. A shandy the night before and a coffee the morning of and I'm cleared out and ready to race! Plus, beer has carbs, right?

Totally unnecessary for a half. Just eat normally in the days leading up to the race. Maybe eat at maintenance for the last couple days. Eat safe foods. Nothing new prior to or on race day. Hydrate well in the 3 days leading up to the race.

I don't carb load per se for a half marathon, but usually the meal I eat the night before is centered around carbs rather than high in protein. Also, if you are used to functioning on 1400 calories, then that may work for you, but personally, I would perform sluggishly on that little. I always make sure I have enough fuel for a race. And, as others have said, hydrate!

I read somewhere that people don't stress carbo loading anymore because their is Goo. What I read said that one Goo packet give you as much as carbo loading will, so why bother? Just carry a Goo.