Keena Carstensen is, by nature, a runner, and so it wouldn't be too surprising for it to seem sometimes as if she's in two places at once.

But the Thousand Oaks High cross country and track coach does a lot more than just run. Her schedule would be enough to tucker out Usain Bolt.

Carstensen not only coaches both the boys and girls teams in both sports at Thousand Oaks, she also holds down two other jobs and is involved with numerous other community activities.

When she's not coaching, you might be able to find her at the Christian Church of Thousand Oaks where she is in charge of the nursery. Or you might catch her working three mornings a week as a senior caregiver.

But to be truthful, it's not easy to catch Carstensen at all. Because in addition to all this, she is still a competitive runner. In September, at age 52, she won the Wounded Warrior Half-Marathon at Naval Base Ventura County in 1 hour, 34 minutes, 54 seconds. In 1995, Carstensen was the 10th woman to finish the Los Angeles Marathon in 3:02:16, and in 2009 was third in the Masters National Championships at Oshkosh, Wis., in the 1,500 meters in 5:27.12.Carstensen's Thousand Oaks girls cross country team will compete Saturday in the CIF-Southern Section Championships at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut.

It's likely that a majority of cross country coaches still run on a regular basis. The number who still compete is likely much smaller.

"The main reason for competing is to keep me training," Carstensen said recently during an interview squeezed in after a track booster meeting. "It's harder for me to find time with my four jobs and being head coach for two sports. Sometimes it's easier to say, 'Oh, I just won't run today' or 'I'll just time the kids' or whatever. But I sign up for races, which keeps me on a training plan, and I do like competing."

At the Christian Church of Thousand Oaks, Carstensen has been the nursery director for 20 years. She coordinates staffing for the nursery at all three Sunday services and for evening programs.

Carstensen also works for a senior caregiving company called Comfort Keepers. Three mornings a week she provides non-medical, in-home assistance for a 79-year-old woman. Carstensen takes her on errands and also helps with her diet and exercise.

"Whatever she can't do, I help her with," Carstensen said. "A lot of it for her is companionship because she moved here from Texas, and I'm basically her only friend. She lives with her daughter and, you know, they're real busy and everything, so I'm kind of a jack-of-all-trades."

Joe Wells, a church friend and running partner with Carstensen, said she is quite inspirational.

"I would say (it's) her determination, her spirit, her perseverance," Well said, "that she stays with something. Her character is to really, really stay with whatever task or goal that she is attempting to do."

For her part, Carstensen said she gets back at least as much as she puts into it.

"I always tell people that I have the best of three worlds because on Sundays I get to be with the babies, then during the week I'm with the elderly people, and in between times I'm with teenagers," she said. "So that helps balance me out a little bit.

"The lady that I take care of in the morning is older so everything is very slow-paced. She doesn't move fast, you can't get ruffled or rush her, so everything is real slow and easy.

"That kind of gets me ready so I can get up to the track at school at 2 o'clock and then run around with the kids. That's when I do most of my training, is with the kids. And then I get the babies on Sundays, which is kind of my fix until I get to be a grandma."

Carstensen says she would have a difficult time picking one over another.

"I like them all," she said. "I like all aspects of it, and none better than the other."

Carstensen is married and has four children, all of whom she home-schooled. She has been in the area since 1982 and has coached at Thousand Oaks for 15 years. She has been the head track coach for three years and the head cross country coach for two.

Carstensen is also a member of Future Track Running Club and is coached by former Agoura High coach Bill Duley. Predictably, Carstensen is more than just a member. She's also on the board of directors and, as membership director, she manages the enrollment of all 75 members. She also substitutes for Duley when he is away.

She has also been involved with the Thousand Oaks Flyers youth club since 1993, as a member of the board and as secretary.

All of this might bring up a pertinent question: When does she find time to do things like sleep?

Carstensen laughed. "I go to bed late and I get up early," she said. "… I make time to sleep because I have to have my sleep. If I don't get sleep, I don't do well."

Carstensen's jobs do have one common thread: patience.

Her elder care job requires her to go slower than the speed she's accustomed to.

"My nature is very fast and a little bit more hectic," Carstensen said. "So she's really doing me a favor those three mornings a week because it forces me to slow down and take life a little bit easier when we go for those walks, to notice a lot more things because I don't go for walks, I go for runs. You don't get to see as much when you're zooming by. When I walk with her, we notice all of the little things."

And the kind of patience needed caring for babies in the church nursery?

"Well, you just love 'em," she said. "Babies you just love."

Coaching is the thing, however, Carstensen gets the biggest kick out of.

"I love the coaching," she said. "I'm passionate about running, first of all, obviously, since I'm still doing it. The kids energize me. I feel like they keep me younger. You know, I keep in touch with what's happening with the teenage group."(It's nice because) I really get a lot of pats on the back, you know, like 'You're doing a really good job.' The kids are great, the parents are even wonderful and three of my assistant coaches are former athletes. I have kids still coming back because it made such an impact on their lives."

Coaching two sports requires year-round work and in track and field, she's in charge of nearly 200 student-athletes.

"In general, most of it's positive," Carstensen said. "Last year with 200 kids, I'd say there were about five kids I would consider that would give you a hard time. Five out of 200 is a really small percentage."