From Lockdown to Long Distance: My runDisney Origin Story

In this heartfelt episode, Stephanie Parks shares her inspiring journey from a sedentary pandemic lifestyle to becoming a four-time Dopey Challenge finisher and passionate Run Disney community member.

Starting with a chance encounter at Disney in 2019 where she discovered the Run Disney community, Stephanie's story takes us through the challenges of the pandemic—gaining 35 pounds, struggling with stress as a healthcare executive, and feeling physically unfit. Despite never identifying as a long-distance runner, she signed up for her first 10K at Wine & Dine 2021, undertrained and unprepared, but determined to finish.

What began as a painful, cold, rainy race became a life-changing moment when she witnessed the diverse, supportive Run Disney community celebrating together. That night, she decided this wasn't a one-time thing—it was her new identity.

Since then, Stephanie has completed multiple marathons, achieved a perfect season running every Walt Disney World and Disneyland race, and is now contemplating chasing the World Marathon Majors. She emphasizes that running gave her more than physical strength—it provided a supportive community, lifelong friendships, mental clarity, and the ability to be a better mother, wife, leader, and friend.

Key Takeaway: You don't need to be first or perfect—you need consistency, patience, belief in yourself, and a supportive community. Everyone you admire started where you are. Keep Becoming!

Champagne Smiles & Magical Miles is a podcast about living with grace, choosing joy, and celebrating the moments — big and small — that make life meaningful.

Hosted by Stephanie Parks, each episode blends mindset, self-care, family traditions, and everyday intention with a touch of Disney magic and real-life reflection. From the words we use and the habits we build to the kindness we extend to ourselves and others, this podcast is an invitation to slow down, show up, and live on purpose.

You’ll hear favorite segments like Words Matter, Magical Miles, Sparkle & Glow Up, and Sip of the Week — each designed to inspire, encourage, and help you leave every episode with simple, practical takeaways you can easily implement in daily life.

Whether you’re in a season of growth, rest, or celebration, this space is for you.

Because every mile matters, every word counts, and life is meant to be lived with grace, joy, and a whole lot of celebrating. ✨🥂

🎙️ New episodes weekly. Follow along and join the celebration.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Let's start this episode with one goal to make your day better than it was five minutes ago. This is Champagne Smiles and Magical Miles, and I'm your host, Stephanie Parks. If you're new here, welcome. I'm really glad you're here. If you're returning, welcome home. Whether you're a Disney adult, a runner, a busy parent, a dream chaser, or someone craving a little more intention, you're in the right place. Hello, friends. Welcome to Champagne Smiles and Magical Miles. I'm Stephanie Parks, and today's episode is a chapter that I'm so excited to share with you. It's finally the right time for this episode. It's the running story. The origin story of how this small town girl, who never identified as a long-distance runner, ended up falling in love with Miles, metals, magic, and the community that changed her life. You all know I talk a lot about races, run Disney, costumes, finish lines, how much joy I find in this journey. But have you ever wondered how it all started? This is it. Why does someone decide to start running? Why does someone decide to sign up for a long-distance race? We all have a different why, and I actually love hearing everyone's backstory. This is mine. So I was on one of my many family vacations visiting Disney. This was in 2019 before the pandemic. And I saw these strange necklaces hanging from people, and they were all wearing matching shirts. If you know, you know. I'm like, is this a conference with cool name badges? I don't think so. Those are really fancy name badges. Why do they all have matching shirts on? So I stopped someone out of curiosity and I said, What's going on? Like, what are you are you here for something? And in true Run Disney community fashion, they happily stopped and said, Here, you want to touch my medal? It's really cool. And the enthusiasm that this stranger exuded sharing the pride of her story, I was intrigued. I immediately Googled racing at Disney and started the journey to registering for my first Disney race. Of course, this happened to be 2019. And I happened to be there during Wine and Dine weekend. And I like wine and I like to dine. So I was hooked. I thought, how fun. And there's an after party I'm in. Little did I know what the future of the world would hold, nor did any of us. And we know what happened next. The world shut down. We learned how to homeschool, how to cook meals at home. I learned how to take out my extensions and how to go without any nails or lashes. And then I learned how to do my own lashes. We learned how to prepare food when we didn't really have much food. We learned how to make do without much toilet paper. I'm a healthcare executive and a business owner. And we were losing people to this crazy disease. As a healthcare worker, our employees were on the front line, and our clients are residents. Every morning I'd wake up and sit on calls most of the day trying to figure out how to take care of the humans that we cared for. I would walk from my bedroom to my bathroom to my office to my kitchen and eat, rinse, wash, repeat day after day, as most of us were trying to figure out what our lives look like during this time. Not to be too depressing, but during lockdown, probably me like most were stressed. We're trying to survive. I wasn't exercising. We literally were trying to figure out day-to-day. Kyle and I learned about these online classes. There was some wine and cheese classes, some amazing cooking classes, and we ran into some cool people doing truffle shuffle classes. But there was a lot of cheese, a lot of wine, and a lot of sitting. It may have been just to escape reality. It may have been out of boredom, but it was our new norm and we made the best of it. So I couldn't run from my house to my front porch and I gained 35 pounds. I am 5'1. I'm a petite human and I gained 35 pounds during the pandemic, during lockdown. I knew something had to change. I couldn't even fit into my pre-pandemic work clothes. I am a healthcare executive. I've always been physically fit, but now the world opened up and I was an unfit mess. I also at the end of the pandemic made a decision to remove my breast implants somewhere on this timeline. That happened to be one of the best decisions that I'd made. And that's a topic worthy of its own podcast. So I will be happy to go down that path, but not today. I've got too much to talk about. And I'm trying to make this one not 35 minutes like the last one. So this very curvy, short, unfit girl needed motivation. So guess what I decided to do? I signed up for the first in-person Run Disney race after the pandemic, and it happened to be Wine and Dine 2021. And no, I couldn't just do a 5K. I wanted a challenge. Anybody can do a 5K laugh out loud. I hadn't ran three miles before, let alone 6.2. I knew I had to be faster than 16-minute miles because I didn't want to get swept. So my goal was just to finish. My sweet husband walked around the neighborhood with me. I tried to jog. My boobs hurt. I was peeing myself. It wasn't pretty. 35 pounds on my five foot one petite frame, and I was a hot mess. He would try to jog a little with me. I was like, it hurts. I don't feel good. My boobs hurt. I'm peeing, all the things. This isn't pretty or sexy. And I wanted to share this story with my community. So here it is. My husband was a cross-country runner. I'm sure he was frustrated, but he stayed by my side. And eventually we went from 20-minute miles to 18-minute miles day after day down to 14-minute miles before the race. So we ran walk. I didn't know about the Galloway method at the time. I just made up my own. I didn't know anything about pacing. I was listening to music that was the wrong pace. It didn't feel good. I didn't have the right equipment. But it was race day, and I was always headstrong. I was going to finish this race. Happened to be the coldest, rainiest morning in Orlando at 2 a.m. And since then, I've run every race since, and I haven't run a race that was as cold as or as miserable as that first 10K morning when we showed up in 2021. We showed up extra early. We had no idea about the races. I didn't want to be too late. We were in the last corral, of course. And I was nervous about those scary balloon ladies. And those of you who don't know about Run Disney, the balloon ladies are super sweet and super supportive, but they're scary when you don't think you're fast enough to finish. So it was 2 a.m. It was cold. It was wet. And I was sorely undertrained in the wrong equipment. We had very little sleep. Mistake, lessons learned. My daughter was flying in from college. She got delayed coming in from Kansas, Rock Chalk, Jayhawk. She was coming to support me. And so we were staying at the Grand Floridian. And guess what Colina decided to do? Yes, Enchanted Rose has amazing old fashions, if you don't know. We sat there and drank old fashions at the Enchanted Rose the night before my very first 10K until my daughter landed and made it. And then we enjoyed one with her. So 2 a.m. came early and fast. We're standing in the corral, and my husband goes, somebody's reeking of whiskey. Embarrassingly, it was his beautiful bride. Now, we could argue that maybe it kept me warm while we waited. I don't know. But I will never do it again. It was a painful race. We ran faster, probably, than we've ever ran before, mostly because I was cold, wet, and hungover. Lots of bad decisions, lots of education that I've done since then. But we finished. We crossed the finish line. It was a bit of a blur. I ran them on tiptoes, which makes for some really sore calf muscles. Wasn't pretty, but check the box, accomplished. Soaked in some Epsom salt, rinsed off, went to the wine and dine after party. And guess what I saw? I saw every shape, size, and age and pace of a runner with challenge medals walking around celebrating, laughing, dancing. In that moment, I'm watching those beautiful Isma medals with the pink potion. She actually haunts me because it's my forever Run Disney FOMO. And if you know, you know it was a beautiful medal. It's not just about the medals, it was about the community. And at that moment, I knew I could do it. I'm sorry to my husband Kyle, who is my Run Disney husband that people know. He thought the painful 10K would be the end to my running ambitions. But that night, this headstrong, five foot one, petite female decided, who was at the time 35 pounds overweight. This wasn't the one-time thing that you thought it was. It was my new community, and this is who I am becoming. So that brings me to one of my favorite segments of Champagne Smiles and Magical Miles, which is words matter. This is episode six. I'm woefully overdue. I'm sorry to my community, but life happened. We've been super busy with the start of the year. I hope you're having a great 2026. Words matter. The word is becoming. Keep that continuously top of mind. Episode two, purpose, doing with purpose, and having a purpose. Episode three was kindness, being mindful and giving kindness, even in difficult situations. Episode four, presence. Being present is more important than being perfect. New Year's Eve with my girls, one of my favorite episodes. It was long. I'm sorry. I didn't have a voice. I was in Tahoe. They were in Orlando. My editing was rushed because I wanted to give it to you before New Year's Eve. But it was authentic. Anchored, my word of the year. And I'm practicing what anchored means to me daily. And I'm really hoping you guys have your word and that you're practicing it and keeping in your head and trying every day. I say, okay, anchored. What does that mean today? Now, the long-awaited running episode, the word that matters is becoming. Not finished, just becoming. Everyone you admire, everyone you look up to, everyone you think that you they are doing something you couldn't do, started where you are. I like to think wherever we are in our journey in life, we are all still becoming who we will be, moving closer with every step to who you think you will become, not who you are. The first race introduced me to the soul of the Run Disney community. The energy, the sunrise start line. And if you know what I mean, that sunrise usually happens as you're well into your race. The finish line tears, which legitimately happen. Usually I cry when I see the castle, and typically I cry when I cross that finish line, especially after a hard race. This dopey was an emotional one for me. From that one horrific starting line at the 10K in 2021 at the Wine and Dine, that community has changed everything. Since then, I've become a four-time Dope Challenge finisher. With that, comes also a four-time marathon completer in 2025. Completed a perfect season running every Walt Disney World and Disneyland race for the 24-25 season. I am chasing my second perfect season this year. And with the end of the Disneyland races, it's very meaningful what we're going to do in two weeks. Each Dopey challenge, I set out with a different intention. And I think setting your mindset, putting your head in the right space is so important for anything as challenging as 48.6 miles. That is a huge challenge. The first race, I just needed to finish. The first dopey, I just needed to finish. The second one, I saw all these people jumping on Everest, having fun. I'm like, okay, I just have to keep going. I ran right through Animal. I'm not even sure I saw it. The second one, I want to ride Everest. The third, I want to ride Everest and Tower, meet my girls and eat one of those delicious Joffrey donuts with the pink icing. And we did it. And number four, which was just last week, I didn't have my intention set. People asked me, what do you want to do? You want to get a drink? Do you want to ride three rides? Like, what is it that you haven't done? What do you want to do? And the night before, I set my intention. I have a dear friend who is one of my ride and die Disney, run Disney friends that has become a life friend. She was injured during Wine and Dine, hasn't been able to train, but signed up for the marathon and wanted to complete a marathon before she turned 50. We didn't walk into the race weekend thinking that she would complete the marathon. We were talking the night before and having dinner when this dear friend of mine said my goal was to complete a marathon. And she's completed many, many half marathons. I don't even know the number. Many more than me. She said, My goal before I turn 50, which she turns 50 in April, I would love to check the box and say that I have crossed a finish line of a marathon. And I said, if you're up to it, we're gonna get it done. And that's what the Run Disney community does. And we did it. After pushing her, what she said is I got sick and tired of chasing after your butt all day. But at the end of the day, we crossed that finish line, and it was an emotional day of love and tears and fun and hard work. So you can do hard things, but if you set your mindset and your intention, you can do anything you want to do. I love the Run Disney story in the community. And this is just one of so many stories I've heard. I've enjoyed the journey of learning to appreciate the noise inside my head. Originally, I didn't want to be a runner because I was scared of how much silence would be inside my head. And I've learned to embrace it. It's not as scary as I once thought it was. I really enjoy that time to think through decisions in life. It's not a scary place, if that's what you think. Maybe inside someone else's head, but not in your own head. So the girl who barely moved during lockdown mastered charcuterie boards instead of training plans and became a long-distance runner running to the castle before sunshine. And now, the first time I'm saying this out loud publicly, I'm contemplating chasing the stars. If you don't know, ask me, but Berlin is first on the list. I would love to hear from anyone who has started that journey. My goal is to finish all six. You don't need to be first. You don't need to be perfect. You need consistency, patience, believe in yourself. Choose something that stretches you. It doesn't have to be running, find a supportive community, and just show up. Running didn't just make me physically and mentally stronger. It gave me a community with lifelong friends. It gave me a space to think and breathe and dream. It allows me to be a better mother, a better wife, a better leader, a better friend, and a woman who chases joy on purpose. And I'm so proud of that. So before we wrap up today, I want to leave you with real life tips. I always try to give you something to take away and hope that you took something away from the content. Running after 40 is a different sport. Galloway method is amazing. He has amazing resources and books and trainings. It changed my life and how I think about running. Having the right gear also changes everything. Your body does deserve the right support. Your joints deserve protection. And you need cute outfits. Anyway, I've spent the last few years testing shoes, bras, socks, apparel, ways to not leak when I run. Message me. I can send you links. I will at some point we'll post different things that I use. But to start running in midlife as a female, as a mom, you have to have bras you trust, shoes you trust, outfits that make you feel strong and confident on the course. As always, you can reach out to me. Now for the fun part, I've been thinking about this a lot and I'm a terrible self-marketer, but I am having so much fun with champagne smiles and magical miles, and I've created some swag. I'm trying to build a personal brand. If you follow me on Instagram at Stephanie in the Parks and you share this podcast on your social media, tag me, DM me. I will send you either a tote bag, a hat, or a shirt. I will need your size with either champagne smiles and magical miles on it, race you to the beer line or race you to the bubbles. So I'm gonna say it again. Follow me on Instagram, Stephanie in the Park, share the podcast on your social media, tag me in your post, and I will send you some swag. This community isn't just about miles, it's about joy, courage, confidence, and showing up for those that you care about. I am having a blast doing this. I hope you enjoy listening to it. Thank you for being here for episode six of Champagne Smiles and Magical Miles. I'd love to hear your version of your challenges and your magical miles and anything you would like to hear from me. Until next time, here's to joy, courage, and a little sparkle on the journey. Book the trip, sign up for the race, pop the bubbles, do whatever it is that makes you happy. Love, hugs, kisses. It's Matty Joe time.