うたぴょんスポーツSome race days you remember for a good split. This one I remember because of a mishap, and because of the hashtag I put on the video afterward: #parentsfault.
It was an ekiden, a relay race where team-mates hand off a sash instead of a baton, and something went sideways that had nothing to do with how fast Uta could run.
How the day went
The morning started the way these mornings usually do — getting the team there on time, sorting out who runs which leg, the usual nervous energy before an ekiden. Uta was ready to run her leg. I was focused on everything around the running: timing, handoffs, being in the right place with the sash.
The race itself
I don't have the finer details of the course or the final placing to share here, because the video itself is really about one moment: the mishap. Something went wrong at a point in the handoff or the setup, and it was on the parent side of things, not Uta's. The video ended up getting a million views, which tells you it was the kind of mishap other running parents recognised immediately — the kind where you want to disappear into the ground for a second.
What a parent took away from it
I tagged the video #parentsfault for a reason. It's easy to put all the pressure on the kid — did she start fast enough, did she hold her position, did she hand off clean. But a lot of what makes an ekiden day go smoothly sits with the adults standing around the course. We're the ones who know the schedule, the exchange zones, where to stand. Uta just has to run.
What I took from it: double-check the handoff logistics before the gun goes off, not after. And when something does go wrong, say it plainly to her — something like 'that one was on me, not you' — so she doesn't carry a mistake that wasn't hers.
Anything left over that matters
The fact that a million people watched a video about a parent's mishap, rather than a personal best or a podium finish, says something. Ekiden days are full of small human moments like this, and they're often more relatable than the results sheet.
Next time, I'm doing a walkthrough of the handoff zone before anything starts. No more surprises from my side.
The video of the whole thing, mishap and all, is above.