It was my first-ever trail run — 35 kilometers through the mountains of Jōetsu-Myōkō.
By the end, my legs stopped lifting, and I started to feel what “getting older” might really mean.
But it wasn’t sad.
It was a quiet reminder that even as the body changes,
we can still find new “first times” —
and feel, in every step, how alive we still are.
