On Mission Avenue in Escondido, Austin Moyer and Mya Loftus have become hard to miss.
They run with flags, Loftus carrying a backpack with a QR code for people who want to learn about their cause. Drivers and pedestrians sometimes stop to ask about the couple, who have run every day of 2026 without taking a day off.
They’re running the calendar — and doing it to raise money for the Parkinson’s Foundation in memory of Moyer’s grandfather, Richard Esterlund.
The couple discovered the “Run the Date” challenge on Instagram, then decided to give it a try. The rules are simple: The month determines the number of miles, and the day determines the decimal. So on July 1, they ran 7.01 miles. In December, they will run at least 12 miles every day.
The distance keeps increasing, but neither has missed a day.
For Loftus, the challenge has meant pushing through a relationship with running that began in almost the opposite place.
“I don’t have necessarily a background of running by any means, quite the opposite,” she said.
Loftus was born with club feet and has dealt with problems involving her Achilles and difficulty walking and running throughout her life. About four years ago, she broke her leg and ankle and had to relearn how to walk while doing her own physical therapy.
She said that experience changed the way she approaches the discomfort that comes with running every day.
“I can always think back to when I wasn’t able to walk where it was such a struggle and very challenging for me,” Loftus said. “Not only physically challenging but emotionally and mentally as well.”
Loftus said the challenge has changed her perspective on discomfort and left her in the best physical shape of her life.
“It’s made me change my perspective on how I view challenges and discomfort,” she said.
The couple has also had to make running fit around their work and everything else in their lives. They own Nomadic Home Services, an Escondido business that specializes in pressure washing, solar-panel cleaning and window cleaning.
In July, they had a job that required two consecutive 12-hour workdays. They still had to get their miles in.
“We were waking up at 3:34 a.m. and we ran six miles before work, and then went and put in a 12 hour day,” Moyer said. “Repeat that the next day as well.”
For Moyer, that kind of discipline was part of the appeal.
He had spent years running intermittently, often training for a race before stopping once it was over. Last year, he committed to six or seven months of continuous training and ran his first 50-mile ultramarathon in January.
Run the Date gave him a reason to keep showing up.
“This challenge is great to get me to continue to run and show up every day to build the discipline to keep going with this, rather than just be goal motivated,” Moyer said.
But the challenge began with something much more personal than running.
Moyer’s grandfather, Esterlund, was a Navy SEAL known as “The Rock.” Moyer said he did not really know his grandfather until he was about 11 or 12, but once Esterlund came back into his life, he became a father figure.
Moyer spent summers at his grandparents’ home, where Esterlund eventually brought him into a project that would become one of their lasting memories together: a massive model-train layout in a room above the garage.
“Very early in our relationship, he decided, hey, I’m going to redo the whole room, and I want you to help me,” Moyer said. “We built this entire train platform together, and we spent like two or three years doing that.”
By the time Moyer knew his grandfather, Parkinson’s was already part of his life.
“I didn’t know him outside of Parkinson’s,” Moyer said.
But the stories and photographs Moyer saw gave him a sense of the man his grandfather had been.
“He was the strongest man you’ve ever met,” Moyer said. “He earned his nickname The Rock because of everything he could do.”
Esterlund’s condition deteriorated significantly during the final years of his life. Moyer said his grandfather eventually could barely walk, while Moyer’s grandmother became his full-time caregiver.
“Just to watch someone that mentally strong, physically strong, just deteriorate like that was really…” Moyer said, trailing off.
Esterlund died in 2020.
Moyer said he has carried his grandfather’s example with him since.
“I’ve always kind of taken that to be like I need to be strong like him to make him proud,” he said.
What began as a tribute to Esterlund has since grown beyond one family.
As Moyer and Loftus began sharing their runs online, they connected with people living with Parkinson’s and others whose family members have been affected by the disease. The couple said they came to understand how many people their fundraiser could reach.
“We’ve expressed to our followers online that this really started with a mission for Austin’s grandfather, but expressing what we’re doing on social media has really turned it into a community thing,” Loftus said.
That community has become part of the reason they keep going, even on days when running is the last thing they want to do.
If work or another commitment pushes their run late into the night, they still go. Rain or shine, they get the mileage done.
Their daily route often starts at their warehouse on Metcalf Street, then takes them to West Mission Avenue and west toward San Marcos.
“We’re on a mission and we’re running Mission Avenue,” Loftus said.
They have also incorporated races into the challenge, completing the SoCal Triple Crown this year with the Carlsbad Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K in January; the GOVX San Diego Half Marathon and 5K in March; and the America’s Finest City Half Marathon and 5K in August.
The couple’s goal is to raise $10,000 for the Parkinson’s Foundation.
But for Moyer, the miles ultimately come back to the man who gave him a model for what strength could look like.
Every day on Mission Avenue, the flags make their purpose visible.
And every day, they keep running.
Support Austin Moyer and Mya Loftus’ Run the Date fundraiser: Parkinson’s Foundation donation page.
