Tower Running's 88th Meet: Rookie Seira Koda Takes Her First Win, Edging Veteran Daichi Tarumi by 0.8 Seconds

■ Eleven Days After Joint Practice, Side by Side for Real

As previously reported on the 14th, the Tokei Tower Running Club and the Fire Bureau team held joint practice at the Kyobashi HQ Tower two weeks before this meet, with September's winner, Daichi Tarumi, 38, and rookie-record holder Seira Koda, 24, running the same stairwell together. The 25th's meet, held as previously announced in late October, marked the 88th overall.

Tarumi led through the middle stretch of the race, but Koda — who had said she learned to read Tarumi's breathing up close during the joint practice — surged from the landing past the 30th floor. She finished in 42 floors, 11 minutes 24 seconds, beating Tarumi's 11:32 (matching his winning time from September) by 0.8 seconds. The Fire Bureau team's participation, as previously reported, dates back three years, and this marks its first-ever win at the monthly meet.

■ Koda: "What I Learned in Practice Came Out Exactly as It Was"

"I said during joint practice that following behind Tarumi-san let me feel where he catches his breath," Koda reflected. "Today I managed to reproduce that spot in my own body. That landing past the 30th floor — it was the first time I felt I still had more in me there." As previously reported, she joined the Fire Bureau only this past March and took up tower running as part of job training. "Six months ago I was out of breath by the third floor and scared to even look up. The moment the win was decided today, that scared version of myself felt further away than it ever has."

■ Tarumi: "My First Loss This Season, But—"

Tarumi, the veteran with five wins this season as previously reported, recorded his first defeat of the year. "This is my first loss this season, but I don't think it was a lie when I said, during joint practice, that it's a time for watching and learning rather than competing. If Koda made her own way of climbing truly hers, and that's what put her ahead, that's not a bad way to lose," he said, keeping to his previously reported understated style. Tarumi has run tower races for nearly a decade. "I've said before that there were days when fewer than ten people showed up when the club first started. Now a young Fire Bureau runner can overtake me like this — I think that's one shape the sport's growing base can take."

■ Fire Bureau Captain: "The Air Among the Young Ones Changes"

The captain leading the Fire Bureau team said, "I said back in September that a runner posting results after just six months lifts the mood among the younger members — and after this win, I feel that mood has shifted up another notch." The team's participation remains, as before, framed as physical conditioning for rescue work in tall buildings. "Posting a time was never the point in itself, but now that a win has actually happened, it'll change how the members see themselves again."

■ University Club, Invited Again

The previously reported (September 25) invited participation from Tokei Institute of Technology's mountaineering club continued this time, with three members competing. Meet organizers reiterated their plan, as previously stated, to "consider formally establishing a student entry category from next month." One of the participating students said, "Watching Koda-san's win up close made me want to race on these stairs myself someday."

■ Reporter's Note

In September, Seira Koda said she had been "out of breath by the third floor" just six months earlier. A month later, she overtook a veteran to stand at the top. She simply took what she learned watching, up close, during practice, and made it her own on the landing when it counted — that's all there is to it, and yet it's enough to make this plain climb up a stairwell into a real story. The next meet is set for late November, again at the Kyobashi HQ Tower.