Built Upon, Not Replaced: My Journey to Club Running

By: Theo Brown, 2026 Recipient of the Amy Schuerholz Metz Scholarship presented by Charm City Run and Saucony

“Quit smiling”, my teammates yelled as I came through the first lap of our last 4x800m relay. 

I couldn’t hide my excitement as twelve seasons of joy, a little bit of pain, and a lot of great times flashed before my eyes. From being a wide-eyed freshman listening to seniors recite the Herb Brooks Miracle on Ice speech before charging, or crawling, up the dip, to night runs at the NCR and spikeball at team dinners, the highlight of every day in high school was walking out to the track and being a part of something bigger than myself. 

As we crossed the finish line and celebrated our last hurrah, I couldn’t help but think these moments were all in the past. On the bus ride home, my smile flattened as I felt the times that I cherished slip away. I worried that nothing could replace these memories that served as the bedrock of my high school experience. 

I carried this sentiment until our first club cross country practice, where our president, adorned in a pair of donut BOA shorts, said we had Franklin Field to ourselves for the next hour – go crazy. I was excited, and a little bit nervous, as a new cast assembled at the start line for some quarter mile repeats. 

Despite the familiar choice of shorts length, I still felt the experience was missing something. I lacked the same why that motivated my high school teammates and I to show up in pouring rain or blazing heat. With no stakes and no rewards, I had to find something new to lace up my shoes in the morning. 

After a few hard weeks of engineering classes, quizzes, and midterms, I considered stopping my search and moving on to whatever was next. I was losing to the transition to college, and thought that by trying to find this why, I was grasping for something that no longer existed. But, without a jog to my name in the previous week, I begrudgingly agreed to go to our first meet. 

On the three hour drive to our first meet in the middle of nowhere, strangers became new friends. As I catapulted off the line alongside a new team, I felt the same unbridled joy that drew a smile on my face in my last 4x800m relay, but from a different place. There was no reason to be out there, except to enjoy it. 

In hindsight my worries on that bus were true: nothing could replace those memories. But they weren’t meant to be replaced; they were meant to be built upon. 

I am forever grateful that the Amy Schuerholz Metz and Charm City Run Scholarship has allowed me to make the most of these opportunities, allowing me to enjoy the club running experience and make the most of Philly races. I am excited to continue to build community in this new Penn and Philly running community. 

Now, no matter what happens during the day, I can lace up my Sauconys and continue to make memories that will last a lifetime.