Renton’s Ken Storkson ran before running was cool.

When he got out of the military in 1965, Storkson noticed he was starting to get heavy. The solution? Start running.

“I started running way back in the 60s,” Storkson said. “Back then nobody ran, except weirdos.”

It’s a good thing Storkson wasn’t afraid to be one of those weirdos, because his footprints are all over Renton’s running history.

Storkson, 72, has coached cross country, track and field, and soccer at Lindbergh, Hazen and Nelsen Middle School in the past 40-plus years. He still lives in Renton. In fact, he’s still very active in the area prep sports scene. He stepped in after the season started to coach Hazen’s track and field team last spring.

Storkson started at Hazen in 1969, then moved on to Lindbergh in 1982. He stayed there, teaching English and coaching until 1999.

Some of Storkson’s best teams at Lindbergh were in the early 90s. The girls cross-country team went undefeated against league competition for four seasons from 1991 to 1994. Overall, from 1989 through 1997, the girls team only lost to league opponents three times.

Storkson stepped down from teaching and coaching at Lindbergh in 1999, when current coach Jef Rettmann took over.

“It was old age more than anything,” Storkson said to his reasons for leaving.

He coached soccer at Nelsen for a few years after Lindbergh, then returned to Hazen last spring. At all of his stops, he had one thing in common with the kids: fun.

“When I coached cross country, we had a lot of fun, and did a lot of crazy stuff,” he said.

One Seattle run sticks out as for fitting the “crazy” part. Storkson told his team to not hop the fence and run into Broadmoor. Broadmoor, an affluent Seattle neighborhood, always had security guards on duty. After telling his team that, they, of course, went on to jump the fence and run into the neighborhood. What they didn’t realize at first is that they were running right through a bee hive.

“They all got stung, and one kid was allergic so we had to rush him to the hospital,” he said. No major harm was done and everyone left with quite the story to tell. “When I see those kids now, they remember that to this day.”

In the end Storkson remembers some of his disappointments (“Not everybody’s built to be a winner, there’s a lot more pressure to be a winner than a loser.”) but mostly his fun moments. The team’s trips to Lincoln Park in Seattle, learning from former Renton High coach Barry Savage, friendships with former Lindbergh coach Arnie Young and Rettmann (who Storkson called “a good friend and a worthy successor.”).

At this point there are just a few things he might change, like having the kids run even more.

“We practiced six days a week, they would have to do a seventh day on their own,” he said. “On the seventh day God rested, so I can too. But good runners don’t.”

Now that Storkson is back coaching at Hazen, he’s come full circle. He’s still getting to work with kids, and he still sees former students and athletes all of the time around Renton, greeting each one with a smile and a story.

“I’m kind of a gregarious old rascal,” he said with a chuckle.