うたぴょんスポーツEvery so often Uta comes home from a race and won't stop talking about it. This was one of those days. The event was the Himeji Castle Marathon, a marathon held in Himeji, a city in Hyogo prefecture famous for its castle, and the title she gave this video says it all: 'the best event ever, highly recommended for elementary schoolers'.
We posted it on February 23, 2026, not long after the race itself.
How the day went
The Himeji Castle Marathon isn't just one race, it's a whole event, and the kids' division runs alongside the main marathon with the castle itself as the backdrop. For a sixth grader like Uta, running toward that kind of landmark instead of just an ordinary finish line banner is a different experience, and she clearly felt it.
I don't have a split time or a placing written down from this one, she didn't come home reciting numbers the way she sometimes does. What she came home with was the hashtags she picked for the video: track and field girl, marathon event, Himeji Castle Marathon. When a ten or eleven year old chooses her own tags for a video, that's usually a better read on how the day went than anything I could write.
What struck me watching her afterward was how little convincing she needed to go again next year. Some races she finishes and is glad to be done. This one she finished and started asking when the next one was. That's rare, and it's worth noticing when it happens.
What a parent took away from it
I think the lesson here isn't about pace or training, it's about which races are worth the drive. Himeji is not a short trip for us, and there are plenty of local marathons closer to home. But an event built around something as recognizable as a castle gives a kid a reason to remember the day beyond just the running part. She wasn't just doing a marathon, she was doing the Himeji Castle Marathon, and that distinction mattered to her.
So the takeaway for me as her dad is to keep an eye out for races like this one, events with some character to them, not just a clock and a course. The running itself will take care of itself if she wants to be there in the first place.
The other thing I want to hold onto is simpler. When she says a race was the best one, I should ask her why, rather than just filing it away as kid enthusiasm. This time the answer seemed to be the setting and the atmosphere, not a personal best. That tells me something about what keeps her motivated, and it's useful to know heading into whichever race is next.
We don't have the next race on the calendar yet, but after this one, I suspect Uta already does.
The video above is her own cut of the day, Himeji Castle Marathon and all.