"I'm a runner and I run almost every day, but I run by myself on the greenway. If this happened yesterday, I wouldn't be here," Brown told ABC11 on Monday night.
He was participating in Runologie's annual "Run for Love" event, a 5K through Dorthea Dix Park that benefits Raleigh Pride and The LBGT Center of Raleigh.
He's run the race before, but his memory of this year is blurry.
"The last thing I remember is turning the corner around the two-mile mark," he said.
Brown collapsed on the course.
"I was told I had no pulse and I wasn't breathing," he said.
Fellow runners stepped in immediately and started performing CPR while they waited for first responders to get there.
"They're my heroes, my saviors," Brown told ABC11. "It's a lot to take in about, you know? I'm just so, so lucky."
He's grateful for the runners who stepped in, and the first responders who used paddles to restart his heart and rush him to the hospital.
He suffered a cardiac episode and a concussion, and he continues to recover in the hospital. He will eventually have to get a pacemaker, but he vows to start running again when he gets clearance from his doctors.
First, though, he's going to learn CPR. He hopes his story encourages others to do so as well, saying you just never know when you're going to be around someone who needs it.
"It saves lives. It saved mine," he said.
As for the runners who stepped in to save his life, he found them through a Reddit post. He's working to coordinate a time to meet up with them and thank them for their quick action.