うたぴょんスポーツThis one was a family affair. The Tele-Tama Oyako Fureai Marathon is a parent-and-child fun run put on with support from Tele-Tama, a local TV station in Saitama, north of Tokyo. Uta ran it with her club, Saitama RC, a local youth running club she trains with.
The description from the day sums it up in one word: 大活躍, which just means 'great performance'. No fancy stats, just a dad who was proud.
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How the Day Went
Parent-child races are a different kind of pressure. It is not just about Uta's legs — it is about pacing together, keeping an eye on each other, and not letting either of us trip over our own nerves at the start line. The Saitama RC crew was there too, so there was a familiar group of faces warming up before the gun went off.
I do not have a finish time or a placing to report here, and I am not going to guess at one. What I can say is that everything about the day pointed to Uta running with confidence. She was not dragging her feet at the start, and she was not dragging her feet at the finish either. That is usually the clearest sign I get that a race went well — more than any number on a watch.
Events like this are lower-stakes than her usual ekiden races (a road relay where team-mates pass a sash) or marathon entries. There is no team order to protect, no sash to hand off. It is just Uta, me, and a course to get through together. That changes the mood completely. She laughs more. She talks between breaths instead of saving every bit of air for the next stride.
Running alongside your own kid also means you notice things you would miss from the sideline. You hear her breathing settle into a rhythm. You see which hills she leans into and which ones she starts watching her feet on. None of that shows up in a results sheet, but it tells me plenty about where she is right now.
What a Parent Took Away from It
The biggest thing I keep coming back to is how different my job is in a race like this compared to a normal one. In her club races, I am mostly a spectator with a stopwatch, shouting splits from the side. In the Tele-Tama Oyako Fureai Marathon, I was actually in it with her, which meant I could not hide bad advice behind distance. If I told her to relax her shoulders, I had to relax mine too.
It also reminded me that not every race needs to be about chasing a faster number. Saitama RC gives her the structured training and the proper race days. This one gave her something else — proof that running can just be fun, with her dad next to her instead of ahead or behind.
Going forward, I want to keep finding room for both kinds of days. The serious training block stays, because that is where her progress actually happens. But a parent-child fun run like this one is worth protecting on the calendar too, even if it never produces a result I can write down.
If there is one thing I will say to her before the next one, it is simple: run like today, where you were smiling at the halfway point.
Next up, she is back with Saitama RC for regular training, with her sights on whatever the next ekiden or marathon brings. For now, here is the video from a really good family day out on the course.