try changing the pad from Toggle to Momentary - see p20 in the manual
re Stoermelder MIDI-CAT - I believe you can map the button, and not patch the Run CV input. there will be a yellow square at the lower left of the control you clicked, indicating that the control is mapped. (I don’t have any midi devices attached at the moment of doing the screenshot - but you can see “SEQ 3 Run” and the yellow square.)
EDIT: I’m not a good reader - I thought you were going to use the PADS to control start stop etc. but maybe you can send a trigger on the rising edge of the signal you get, using VCV Library - VCV Gates
EDIT AGAIN:
Maybe this setting on p11 of the AKAI MPK mini plus userguide can make it work with Rack:
