Saw this in a high school game on Sat....courtesy runner for the catcher....he just came on the field and went right past the base and just started off 3 or 4 paces from the bag with his lead. Couldn't remember seeing someone not step on the base and then measure off their lead from there and juat struck me as odd.

No, not really. It is similar to retouching the base after a foul ball. The rules say you should return to the base but there isn't any penalty for failing to do so. In practice, they don't have to actually touch the base as long as they are within a normal leadoff range.

The plate umpire should make sure the runners are in the vicinity of the base before putting the ball back in play though, but if they aren't there isn't any penalty listed. The umpire will just tell them to go back to the base before they will put the ball in play.