An ambassador for “ALTRA” and the manager of the Odawara store.Kazuko Endo is a true-blue runner who once competed for a corporate track and field team. “I’ve spent my whole life running,” she says with a truly charming smile. Taking full advantage of Odawara’s location, she shares the joy of running and walking directly from the store floor.
Text by Toshiaki Ito
Photos by Shinichi Yajima
Stride Lab Opens in Odawara, the City of Running
On a weekend morning, Hakone-Yumoto Station was bustling with international tourists and runners.
Hakone isn’t just a hot spring destination—it’s also a popular area for trail running. If you make good use of the Hakone Tozan Railway, you can easily enjoy a casual run, while the roughly 50-kilometer loop around the Outer Rim Mountains will satisfy even advanced runners.From short to long distances, and from beginners to experts, there’s no shortage of course variety.
Many runners in Hakone use Hakone-Yumoto as their start and finish point. With its excellent access and an abundance of nearby restaurants and hot springs to wash away the sweat, this is only natural.The event held that day by Stride Lab’s Odawara branch also used this location as its starting point.
Eleven participants gathered around Store Manager Endo. His friends and regulars affectionately call the petite Endo “Mame-san.”By greeting each person warmly, Endo created a naturally relaxed and friendly atmosphere. He lent out the newly arrived “Experience Flow 3” from Altra to those who wanted to try them on, and once everyone was ready, they began walking at a leisurely pace.
The event involves walking or running through the historic sites around Odawara—from the Sengoku and Edo periods through the Showa era—that still remain today. This fourth and final installment of the series starts at Hakone-Yumoto Station, follows the Ogikubo Irrigation Canal built during the Edo period, and ends at Stride Lab’s Odawara branch.This unique, approximately 12-kilometer, three-hour course is possible precisely because Odawara is a place rich in history and still blessed with abundant natural beauty.
Leading the group is Yuji, a native of Odawara who normally works as a geo-guide in Minamiashigara City. With running, hiking, and cycling as his hobbies, he became a regular at Stride Lab’s Odawara branch and organized this event by drawing on his own knowledge and experience.
Endo moves constantly within the group, exchanging words with participants while casually keeping an eye on the whole group. He’s careful in areas with heavy foot and vehicle traffic, but the participants are well-accustomed to it, naturally calling out, “Bicycle coming through!” or “Car coming!”
As he turned onto the empty road and watched the group set off running, he spoke as if savoring every word.
“Since I’m doing this on my own, the fact that we can hold an event with this many people is all thanks to everyone’s cooperation. I’m truly grateful.”
He’s been holding these events since the store first opened, gradually gathering a group of friends.
Every Tuesday is Night Run day. They meet at 7:30 p.m. after closing, run about 5 km, take a photo at Odawara Castle, and head back. The pace is slow, and since it’s open to anyone without registration, the barrier to entry is low.
Many events take advantage of the local area’s unique characteristics. One event unique to Odawara—with its mild climate and many citrus farms—is the “Shonan Gold Picking Run.” Shonan Gold is a citrus fruit produced in Kanagawa Prefecture, a cross between the Satsuma mandarin and the Golden Orange, combining a refreshing aroma with an elegant sweetness.Participants run out to the orchards, fill their backpacks with freshly picked Shonan Gold oranges, and head home. Another fun event is the “Kamaboko-Making Experience Run,” where participants run to “Suzuhiro”—a shop famous for its kamaboko—and take part in a workshop. Both are popular events that attract participants from outside the prefecture.
“Since Odawara isn’t the kind of town people typically visit just to shop, we make a point of introducing not just the products but also incorporating Odawara and Hakone into the experience.”
Odawara, which serves as the gateway to Hakone, is a town for runners. The castle town surrounding Odawara Castle, located at nearly 0 meters above sea level, is flat, but as soon as you turn your back on the ocean, you’ll find slopes leading up into the mountains.There’s a wide variety of trails to choose from, and sightseeing runs that follow the Hakone Ekiden course are also popular. It was only a matter of time before Stride Lab opened in this city.
Mame's Running Community
Endo started track and field in middle school. He loved long-distance running and joined a corporate team after graduating from high school. He became a member of the ekiden team but retired at age 20. From then on, he ran as a recreational runner, but in his 30s, he discovered adventure racing and naturally transitioned into the world of trail running.
He modestly attributes his retirement from competitive running at age 20 to being “ridiculously slow,” but he has kept running continuously from his junior high school days until now.
He says he “likes running the longer it is,” and that it suits his nature. His longest run to date was the “UTMB PTL”—considered the most grueling leg of the “Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc,” a trail race that circles Mont Blanc in the French Alps.
Although it has the cute-sounding name “Petite Trotte à Léon (PTL),” it’s a brutal race in which teams of three must cover a distance of 300 km with a cumulative elevation gain of over 25,000 meters.Although one team member had to drop out along the way, Endo and his remaining partner successfully completed the race.
My relationship with Stride dates back to 2014, when I became an Altra ambassador through a friend’s introduction. I initially turned down the offer to “be the store manager,” but as I participated in events at various stores as an ambassador, I became interested after seeing how each store had built its own unique community.
“I didn’t have any experience in sales, so I thought it would be impossible, but once I saw that people were approaching it in all sorts of ways, and that communities were forming around the stores, I started to think that was really great…”
When the offer came again, I made up my mind, and the Odawara store opened in December 2023.
Odawara is blessed with a location close to both the sea and the mountains. It has a long history and was perceived as a conservative tourist destination, but once I actually started living there, I found that wasn’t the case. While many people have been running businesses there for a long time, the number of people moving in has increased as remote work became the norm following the COVID-19 pandemic. The city of Odawara is also making preparations to welcome newcomers. It’s a city with a vibrant flow of new energy and one that never stops changing.
“New shops are opening in the traditional shopping district, and the city is still changing little by little. There are also many international visitors who come to see Odawara Castle as part of a package tour with Hakone, and I think it’s an exciting city where new things seem poised to begin. With both the ocean and the mountains nearby, there are so many places I’d love to introduce to everyone.”
Three years have passed since we opened, and we’ve built a community unique to Odawara.
“Our regulars go out to eat after night runs, invite each other to go hiking, and even form teams of women who’ve only ever run on roads to compete in trail running races. I think it’s really wonderful that they’re naturally forming friendships and going out to have fun together.”
I’ve seen it happen countless times: people who couldn’t run at all at first eventually learn to run.
“Someone who bought a pair of Altra shoes saying they wanted them for walking ended up saying they wanted a pair for the mountains next and started going hiking. As they walked, they lost weight and built up their stamina, which became their motivation to start running—and just the other day, they finally signed up for a marathon.”
Seeing people like that makes the work feel rewarding. While he feels a sense of fulfillment in the growing community, there’s still plenty he wants to do.
“If I could free up a little more time, I’d like to try organizing mountain events, too.”
Since he has to open the store in the afternoon, most of the events he organizes right now are shorter road races.Although there are limitations to running the shop alone, he doesn’t seem to be giving up.
He keeps running steadily, undeterred by long distances.
Just as he has done so far, Endo will undoubtedly continue to expand what he can do, little by little, at his own pace.
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Kazuko Endo
She has served as an Altra ambassador since 2014. She was appointed store manager when the Stride Lab Odawara branch opened in 2023. She enjoys map reading and has participated in numerous mountain races. Recently, she has been enjoying rogaining.Her hobby is “mountains,” and she heads out to the mountains even on her days off. As a runner, she has numerous podium finishes to her credit, including 10th place overall (1st in her age group) at the 2003 Maui Marathon, victory at the 2005 Ashigara Adventure, and 4th place in the women’s division at the 2013 UTMF STY (84 km).
