うたぴょんスポーツWe went down to Aizu, in Fukushima, for the Tsurugajo Half Marathon on October 5th. The main event is a half marathon for adults, but there are short kids' races too, and that's what Uta ran.
I'll say it straight: I think this is the best kids' race in Japan, and not because of how fast anyone runs. It's how the whole town treats the kids that gets me every time.
How the day went
The atmosphere before the race was almost chaotic in a good way. There's a tradition here where runners get free food from stalls set up around the venue, and kids can go around filling bags with it. We went three times and nearly filled two bags. Uta said it was her favourite part, even before she'd run a step.
She warmed up with a club group, Arakida Kids among them, and other kids from a local track club. Everyone seemed relaxed, joking around at the start line rather than tense.
The race itself
Uta ran in the fourth-grade girls' 2km race, wearing bib number 7820. At the start she nearly lost her footing, which she mentioned afterward as something to fix next time. Once she settled, she pushed to stay with the lead group and pulled away.
She crossed the line first, with a time of 7 minutes 53 seconds. On the podium, the first-place prize was a Fukushima Toyota award, while second and third got boxes of Otsuka goods. She stood on the top step for the fourth-grade category and got her photo taken with the other place-getters.
What a parent took away from it
Her own comment afterward was simple: happy with first place, happy the start went fast enough to get clear of the pack early. But she also flagged the stumble at the start herself, without me prompting her — that's the part I want to build on. Not the time, the habit of noticing what to fix.
I didn't say much to her about the result. I think with a 9-year-old, the race report she gives herself matters more than anything I could add. My job was mostly logistics that day: bags, bibs, snacks, water.
One thing I'd do differently next year is get her to the start line earlier so there's less jostling right before the gun. That's on me, not her.
Anything left over that matters
This wasn't just Uta's day. Other kids from her club ran the shorter events too — one mentioned finishing third and wanting to win next time, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear from a kid after a race, win or lose.
She's currently ranked 10th nationally for the 2024 school year in the third-grade girls' 1000m, so this course and this distance were a different kind of test — a road race with a hill, not a track. She said the course was easy to run despite the hill, which tracks with how she talked about pacing afterward.
Next up we'll see what's on the calendar for the rest of autumn — more road races, maybe another ekiden (a road relay where team-mates pass a sash) if one comes up nearby. For now, two bags of festival food and a trophy are sitting in our hallway.
The video has the full day, start to finish, including the award ceremony and her own thoughts right after the race.