うたぴょんスポーツThis time the race report is not about Uta running. It is about Uta working. I had a half marathon coming up, and she asked if she could help at a water station along the course.
She is 9 now, born early in 2016, so she is in the middle of her own season too — she finished 10th nationally in the 2024 school year rankings for third-grade girls over 1000m. But on this day she was not racing. She was on the other side of the table, handing cups to tired runners like me.
How the day went
Uta had never done water-station duty before, so she was nervous about it in a way she usually is not before her own races. Pouring water sounds simple, but doing it fast, without spilling, while a line of runners comes through at speed, is its own kind of pressure.
She took the job seriously. Cups filled, lined up, handed out one after another as runners passed. I came through that section myself during the half marathon and got my cup from her hands, which is not something I expected to experience as a dad who usually watches her compete.
Watching her focus on getting it right, cup after cup, it looked a lot like the focus she brings to her own starting line. Different role, same attitude.
What a parent took away from it
I think this kind of day teaches something a race never does. When Uta runs, she is inside her own effort, thinking about her own legs and her own time. At the water station, she had to think about other people — timing her pour to someone else's stride, not her own.
I told her afterward that every runner who grabs a cup without even looking is trusting that someone filled it right and held it out steady. That is not nothing. It is a small, quiet kind of responsibility, and she handled it without being told twice how to do it.
For me, the lesson was about showing her the sport from more than one side. She knows what it is like to be handed water when she is exhausted in a race. Now she knows what it is like to be the one doing the handing. I think that will make her a more thoughtful teammate in her own ekiden races, the relay events where team-mates pass a sash instead of a baton, later this season.
Next time I would like to give her a slightly harder section of the course, maybe near a hill, where runners need the water most and the job matters a bit more.
Her own next race is coming up soon, and I suspect she will think about this day differently once she is the one reaching for a cup instead of filling it.
The video shows Uta at the water station, cup in hand, taking her first shift seriously from start to finish.