Wife Mother Runner Lightning McQueen Archives

Race To Your Theater To See Cars 3!

June 27, 2017

If you haven’t seen the new Cars 3 movie yet, I suggest you race down to your nearest theater to see it! My family and I went to see it during its opening weekend and loved it! I love to go to the newest movies during release weekends because I feel like there is a special excitement in the air. The theater is usually more full, and you are one of the first to see the movie. We had seen the latest releases of Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast, Moana, Finding Dory, and Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales all during their release weekends.

Cars is a winner in our house

My son was always a big fan of the original Cars movie. My son was born in 2007 and Cars was released in 2006. Since I grew up in a family who loves NASCAR, naturally we had to see the Cars movie. We loved it and when my son was old enough to watch movies this was on repeat in our house. He loved to line up all his cars on the rug and play with them. He had just about every Cars toy you can have and of course, one of his birthday party themes was Cars! Fast forward to 2017, he is now 10 years old and STILL loves his cars and the Cars movies.

NASCAR cameo appearances in Cars 3

Since I am a NASCAR fan it was fun to hear the voices of the drivers and racing-related personalities from NASCAR such as Kyle Petty, Humpy Wheeler, Ray Evernham, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Jeff Gordon, Shannon Spake, Darrell Waltrip, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Daniel Suárez in the film.

*SPOILER ALERT**

Cars 3 was special. I loved the relationship Lightning McQueen developed reluctantly with his assigned trainer Cruz. He worked with this trainer after a devastating crash which took him out of racing for 4 months. Reluctantly, Lightning started training with Cruz and inadvertently started training her to believe in herself. Cruz, having been told she would never be a racer, didn’t believe she had what it took to be a race car driver. As her friendship with Lightning McQueen grew they leaned on each other to help each other reach their goals. No realizing that in the end they both would end up winning. Your favorite characters from the previous Cars movies are in Cars 3 such as Mater, Mack, Sally and Doc. As well as some new ones like Doc’s old friends and his trainer Smokey.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story, so I’ll leave it up to you to step on it and make a pit stop to your theater and see it soon!

Making of the Movie

Disney Pixar on Twitter shared some great backstory information about the making of the movie. John Lasseter holds a Motorama event that takes place on the lawn of Pixar Studios. This year’s Motorama took place on the same day as the release of Cars 3! John Lasseter has always loved car. He said “I have always loved cars. In one vein I have Disney blood, and in the other I have motor oil.” Jay Ward is the Creative Director for Cars 3. He is the perfect member of the team because of his knowledge of the details in cars. He visited the ghost tracks in the deep south to get a sense for the sport and added that feeling into the film.

After You Reach The Finish

After you see the heart racing film, you can download a fun app to your phone for playing the new Cars 3: Driven to Win game and continue the fun to train and challenge your family and friends in the Battle Race to become the Ultimate Champion!

2017 runDisney Walt Disney World Marathon…The First Half

January 30, 2017

The big race of the weekend was finally here! I was going to run the marathon with PK, Diana and our new friend Tami. It was PK’s first marathon and I was so excited for him! I told him that I would meet him at his hotel lobby at 4:10 a.m. He was staying right around the corner from me and right en route to the race, so it was perfect. So my alarm was set for 3:00 a.m. I had my tea, cinnamon toast and I packed a bag full of snacks.

I also had to put on several layers of clothing. I had on my long sleeve shrug, my Patriots shirt (in support of PK), a light jacket, a fluffy red sweatshirt and my XXXL men’s sweatshirt. I was also wearing my sign in honor of Lyla but I had to make sure that when I shed my layers I would have to re pin the sign and my race bib. It was crazy that in Florida I was dressing in so many layers. When I walked out to the car I was surprised that it wasn’t as cold as I was expecting. But I knew that waiting in the corrals I was going to feel colder.

PK and I drove to Epcot, had to park in one of the spots that was the FURTHEST spot away and we walked the journey to bag check, the runner’s area and then down to the corrals. Just before we entered the runners area I spotted Jacqui Kapinowski on her way to the wheelchair start! I was so happy to see her and she told me she had just been talking to Harry about me recently! I met Jacqui during Princess Weekend in 2014, and she was my first exposure to Achilles International, which I am not a volunteer for.

With this being his first marathon and his first Disney marathon he was surprised, like I was my very first time, at how much walking we had to do before even getting to the race. We got down to the corrals and hooked up with Diana and Tami. Thankfully we weren’t there too early. I believe we were in the corrals for about 20 minutes before they started moving us closer to the start. But just before they did we all go the pre-race porta pottie jitters so we all rushed over there just in time. I was right, it was cold in the corrals so we used the space blankets and I was glad that I had my throw away sweatshirt, gloves, and ear warmers. I talked PK into bringing his gloves and hat as well for the race.

PK, Tami, Diana and I trying to keep warm in the corral

Our corral took off at 6:23 a.m. and we were consistent with doing our walk/run intervals the first several miles of the race. PK and I planned to run ahead of Diana and Tami to the character or picture locations and then we would all decide if we wanted to wait in line or keep going. Since the first few miles were things that we had already seen in past years, and we wanted to increase the buffer of time between us and the balloon ladies, we skipped the first few stops. We did stop for Lightning McQueen and that’s where I ditched my first layer. Diana and Tami ran ahead and PK and I stopped for Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.

My favorite thing is always running under the bridge that is the waterway to the Contemporary with the DJ and his big hands encouraging the runners. He never disappoints. We made our way towards the Magic Kingdom and waited just near Main Street for Diana and Tami and then we all ran down Main Street together.

While in Magic Kingdom, we used the real bathrooms, then Diana and Tami ran ahead while PK and I stopped for all of the character stops. We did end up finding each other around mile 10 at Bear Road (aka the water treatment plant). Just in time for Diana to get her picture with Wreck It Ralph! She was disappointed that earlier in the race they weren’t at the location we were used to seeing them at.

I found Sid around mile 6

On Bear Road there was a section of the race that had vintage ride cars. This was great. There was the ship from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, a Rocket from Star Jets, a car for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White, and a cart from The Skyway. This was one of my favorite picture spots. I heard Rudy announce that this was going to be around mile 10 and it was incredible to see these epic extinct rides!

After this point in the race we were approaching the out and back loop. i was unaware that this out and back was going to be so long. Last year it was a short distance until the turn around. This year, we had to make up some distance due to the construction going on in Hollywood Studios so the extra distance was on a long stretch of road behind Animal Kingdom. I was a little frustrated when I looked ahead and saw how far it went. But I put my head down and trudged forward. Again, we saw Diana and Tami at this part of the course.

We turned into the back of Animal Kingdom and this is where we were at the halfway point in the race. Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog post, the second half!

Tag: Lightning McQueen