morning in late April, the 19-year-old from West
Catholic Preparatory High School in West Philly
shows up to the longest run of his life wearing a
green cotton T-shirt from Moe’s Southwest Grill
and a tattered pair of red New Balance sneakers.
Kpou’s attitude toward this run, during which he’ll
attempt to keep up with friends and mentors with
thousands more miles in their legs than he has, is
optimistically apathetic.
“I missed an 8-mile practice last Saturday,”
Kpou says, slipping off the back of the pack. He
runs past the Philadelphia Zoo, 3 miles into the
day’s 9-mile workout for next week’s Broad Street
Run, a 10-miler. The skinny Kpou has a shoulder-
swinging, knock-kneed gait, but he’s got the natural
bounce of untapped potential. “I missed the 5-mile
practice and had to go straight from 4 to 6,” he says.
“Ah geez, man. I was hurting.”
This was Kpou’s first season back to running
after he joined the movement known as Students
Run Philly Style (SRPS), a mentorship program
that gets students from grades 6 to 12 training for
races in Philadelphia. Kpou ran track in middle
school but wasn’t very fast because he didn’t show
up to practice. It hasn’t gotten easier with SRPS,
but his attitude has changed. “In the beginning it
was hard. I was the last one, always out of breath,
always sitting down,” Kpou says. “Now that I work
on it, I’m much better. But it still takes a lot of effort
to keep up with these guys.”
A cacophony of voices rises from the group he’s
chasing, buzzing about the hills to come, their tone
more can-do anticipation than dread. Malachi Shell,
a 25-year-old adult mentor, leads the boisterous
band of 20—a mix of adults, parents, teachers, and
students—as they turn into the wind on West Girard
Avenue. Shell ribs Huntington Brown, a 17-year-old
Mastery Charter School–Shoemaker Campus stu-
dent, over his purple do-rag. It’s Brown’s favorite
accessory; it makes him run faster, they conclude.
They trade weekend plans, what they’re going to eat,
whether they’ll attend the afternoon’s Penn Relays.
Kpou catches up and the group pushes to gain
ground on twins Nia and Imani Mitchell, both
freshmen at Mastery Charter School–Lenfest
Campus, who are running with their mom, Audrey
Russell. But the family blows by the mile-6 water
stop. Kpou lingers a few seconds off the back of his
chatty group. A red light offers him the opportunity
to reconnect, and as the walk signal illuminates,
he’s leaning forward, reopening his stride, and
pressing further into the depths of his farthest run.TUTEE KPOU
HAS SENIORITIS.
ON A CRISP
SATURDAY
Clockwise from top:
Two weeks before the
10-mile Broad Street
Run, Tutee Kpou
crushed his first
9-miler. | Mentor Erik
Wiessmann (left) and
students Adam Doug-
las (center) and David
Castellanos (right).
“Students Run is a time
when you don’t have
to feel stress,” Doug-
las says. | Northeast
High teacher Amanda
Fiegel says she recruits
students who aren’t
involved in other
activities. She says
running develops bonds
between students who
otherwise wouldn’t talk
to one another.62 RUNNERSWORLD.COM