Tip Tuesday: Marathon weekend tidbits

As the runners get ready for the half-marathon, full-marathon and Goofy Race and a Half Challenge, I thought I'd take a few moments and share a few more tips about Marathon Weekend - one tip for spectators and one for runners.

First, for spectators:
Be sure to read my November 2011 post about good spectator locations to cheer on runners.  I talk about some of the good spots to try to cheer on runners that won't require some special CheerSquad package.  Keep in mind the marathon course is a bit different this year because it's the 20th anniversary, but many of the locations are still good spots.

Also, if you're cheering on specific runners, you can keep tabs on where they are on the course through runner tracking.  Just to to this site:  http://live.xacte.com/wdw/alerts/ create an account and search for your runner(s).  You can get live updates sent to you in up to four different ways:  text message, email, Facebook post or tweet.  It's very helpful to know where your runner is on the course and how they're doing.  It will help you be ready to cheer when he or she is coming down the road.  As a two-time RunDisney participant (2010 half, 2012 full), I know how hugely important it is for the runners to have friends and family cheering them on.

Speaking of the course, if you need maps, here they are:

• Marathon
• Half-Marathon
• Family Fun Run 5K

Now for the runners:
Be sure to check out last week's Tip Tuesday post about some important pre-race considerations.  Now I want to talk about post-race.  You may have heard it mentioned before elsewhere, but I'm here to tell you it works -- ice baths (thanks Marie -- you know who you are!!).  A very good friend strongly urged me to take an ice bath as soon as I could after the marathon to help with recovery.  I thought she was crazy.  Take a bath in freezing cold water AND pour a few buckets of ice in as well??  I'm here to tell you that within 36 hours after that 8 minute ice bath, my legs were not nearly as sore as they were after some of my training runs.  I could actually walk and move around.  Now I follow any really long run with an ice bath of some sort.  It really works.

For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about, and ice bath is where you draw about a half a tub full of cold water and pour in a few buckets of ice to make the water extremely cold.  You sit in this cold water for several minutes and then get out and warm back up.  As I understand it, the cold helps jump start the recovery process.

Please be sure to check out these important dos and don'ts from Active.com.

To all you runners out there, especially those on the WDW Radio Running Team and Team AllEars - I wish you the best of luck and DON'T break a leg!!!