うたぴょんスポーツOn October 5, 2025, Uta lined up for the grade 4 girls' 2km race at the Tsurugajo Half Marathon, a race held around Tsurugajo Castle in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima. This wasn't just any race for her. It was a rematch, a full year after she first went head to head with the same rival.
She'd been talking about this one for weeks. Not nervous exactly, but focused in a way I don't always see from her before a race.
How the day went
We got to the venue with plenty of time to spare. The castle grounds give the whole event a nice atmosphere, even for the littlest races on the schedule. Uta warmed up quietly, going through her usual drills without much chatter. I could tell she was running the race in her head before she ever got to the start line.
She told me she felt good. Not perfect, just good, which from Uta is usually a reliable sign. She's nine, born early in 2016, so she's still working out how to carry nerves without letting them take over. Today she seemed to manage it better than I expected.
The race itself
The grade 4 girls' 2km went off and it was clear almost immediately that this was going to be close. The rival she'd been waiting a year to race again was right there with her, stride for stride through a lot of it. Two kilometers isn't long, which meant there was no room to ease into a rhythm and wait. Every second mattered from the gun.
It came down to the final stretch, the way these things often do when two kids who know each other's pace are running side by side. I won't pretend I caught every detail of how the last meters played out, but Uta gave everything she had in that final push. That's really all you can ask.
What a parent took away from it
Watching her prepare for a specific rematch, rather than just another race on the calendar, taught me something about how she thinks about competition now. She wasn't just trying to run her own best time. She was thinking about someone else's pace, measuring herself against it, and that's a different kind of pressure for a nine-year-old to carry.
Afterward I didn't ask her about the result first. I asked how it felt to be back out there against the same girl after a year. She lit up talking about it, win or lose, and that told me the rivalry itself is doing something good for her, not just the race itself. Next time, we'll talk about starting strong rather than saving something for the end, since a 2km race barely gives you time for a slow build.
Anything left over that matters
Uta also appeared briefly on a local news segment, Nstar, around the 10:29 mark, running alongside another young racer they call Rungirl-chan. It's a small thing, but it's fun for her to see herself on screen doing what she loves.
She's already asking when the next head-to-head will be. I don't have an answer yet, but I suspect it won't be long before these two line up again.
The video above has the full race, start to finish.