By Dan Tarrant • Posted April 24, 2026

“Our Father who art in Heaven” crackled over the old Franklin Field PA system and hundreds of Catholic families in the historic University of Pennsylvania stadium responded “hallowed be thy name … but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

With that, a buzz of excitement filled the arena Tuesday evening, April 21 as CYO Night at the Penn Relays began with is rhythmic cadence, “Runners take your mark, set” and the bang of the starters gun rang out over and over.

A flood of Catholic children in parish CYO track programs flowed through the stadium infield at their appointed times preparing to run their best in the long-standing Penn Relays track and field carnival.

Some blazed across the track with a speed that brought the audience to its feet with oohs and ahhs. Other runners, knowing in the final meters they would not win their race, still pressed on relentlessly. Each athlete ran hard regardless of their placement at the meet.

It was a night that would make any parent proud.

The parents themselves needed to race to Franklin Field immediately after school with their families and stay late into the evening on a school night.

In that hustle of family life —likely involving a quick sandwich in the car on the way to the stadium followed by chicken nuggets, pretzels and Gatorade at the concession stand after the race — a Catholic memory was created.

Those Catholic memories are how God builds his Church brick by brick and soul by soul.

For the rest of their lives when the children pass Franklin Field they will remember: “I was on that track in front of that crowd in that atmosphere and I did my best.”

For some their best would lead to a second race at the Penn Relays Finals a couple days later. For others their best simply led to the cheers of parents and coaches who never needed their child’s victory to win their love and commitment.

For all of these CYO athletes, whether they won or lost, they each “ran so as to win” in the words of St. Paul.

Each child developed a little more of the character God wants all of us to have as we run our own races in life not for the “perishable crown” given at a track meet, but the “imperishable crown” of heaven (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

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Dan Tarrant is the founder of Personally Catholic, an apostolate that uses film, photography, speaking, and service to help deepen personal relationships with God. Photos from CYO Night at the Penn Relays are available for viewing and purchase through Personally Catholic.