Cross-country caretaking

1. Can you explain what you do in terms of setting up the cross-country course at Faurot Park and who you do it for?

Ten teams will be here [Tuesday]. Monday we mow, we line the course. [Tuesday] we set up the finish line. We still have flags to set up. Middle school, seventh- and eighth-graders, they'll go first, the girls, then followed by the boys. They will run a two-mile course, which is different from the high school. They will run a 3.1-mile course.

2. How long have you been setting up the cross-country course at Faurot Park?

About 20 years. My coach at Lima Senior High used American flags when he was setting up the course at Hawthorne Hills and then I took the flags up to the college and he liked that idea. Then I went to Elida to teach and coach and we worked with the flags and we worked with color-coded flags. I carried it on through after Elida.

3. I've heard a number of people tell me you set up the finest cross-country course in the entire state, lined with American flags, a fancy finish line and it's well marked. Why do you go through all this trouble?

I don't want the kids to get lost. It's not like basketball or football where you have a direction to go to. Here, we're traveling at least a mile-and-a-half circuit then repeating it. You can get lost. We come out here in early season in August and nobody knows where to go when it's not marked.

4. How long does it take you and what are some of the things you do?

It used to be on a Tuesday when we have a meet in the evening, I would be out here at 1 p.m. Now, it's almost 9 or 10 in the morning and start working, take a break for lunch and then come out. Fire the gun at 4:30 p.m. That's if we don't mow the lawn Sunday or Monday. That's another six hours out here.

5. Do you enjoy seeing the kids each year, and perhaps those you see over and over improve as they go through school?

Yeah.

7. Who was the best high school runner you recall?

A whole lot of them. T.J. Lentz, for one, he's still running way back when. Now you go Jim Heider for LCC, who's a star.

8. I hear you were quite a runner in your day, including holding the unofficial title as the fastest runner around some 30 years ago, is that true and what were your fastest 5K times?

Thirty years ago, yeah, that's correct. In fact, I got better when I reached around 30 [years old]. Get faster, get better, then you slow down. My 5K times weren't that much, if I could do 5:30 per mile, I wasn't really that fast. Probably 16 minutes for a race. I was more of a 10K runner. I had a 32:50, I think was my best time.

9. I hear you're the only Kingsbery to medal at an Olympics. What's that about?

I started riding Senior Olympics here in Lima. I put on the course ride for the Lima Senior Olympics and then I got talked into racing. In 2005, I was the overall winner of the Senior Olympics for the state of Ohio on the bicycle. [My brother] Alan rode in the '76 Montreal, Canada, Olympics for the 100-kilometer team pursuit, four-man team pursuit.