OK, sure, Sunday’s L.A. Marathon is a...

OK, sure, Sunday’s L.A. Marathon is a respectable test for a runner. But it’s a mere jog in the park compared to the extravaganza that originated here in 1928--the First International Continental Foot Race. That was a 3,200-mile jaunt, from L.A. to Manhattan. A maxi-marathon.

Organized by showman C. C. Pyle, the Bunion Derby, as it became known, attracted 274 optimistic entrants. One-fourth of them pooped out the first day, author Tom Teague writes in “Searching for 66,” a history of the old highway, a portion of which was used for the race.

A Finn took the early lead in California, giving way a few states later to an Englishman. The latter dropped out in Chicago with an infected tooth. Andy Payne, an Oklahoma farm youth, took over at that point, having recovered from a bout of tonsillitis in New Mexico.

Pyle, meanwhile, had rented stadiums at numerous scheduled stops, where he sold programs, refreshments and souvenirs.

Payne never lost the lead, entering Manhattan on the 86th day. He had run an average of almost a marathon and a half every day for about three months (and without a single pair of $150 running shoes). Fifty-eight others also finished.

The soft-spoken Oklahoman, who used the $25,000 prize to pay off his family’s mortgage, seemed unimpressed with his accomplishment.

“I owe all my success,” he said afterward, “to corn bread.”

Just when we thought air quality might be improving, Douglas Haynes of L.A. spotted a depressing announcement at an Inglewood service station (see photo).

Now, we’re not so sure that traffic congestion will be lessening, either. After we saw a car with a BAK2NY license plate, a colleague tells us of a sighting in Ventura of a plate that said BACK2LA.

Talk about a meteoric rise: KNX radio staffer Connie Brown finishes a two-week stint as a juror, then is nominated for a judgeship.

Yup, Brown will preside over the 1992 Girl Scout Cookie Sweet-Off Contest at the World Trade Center next month.

As for our item about L.A. business names that you won’t find in Dubuque--Celebrity Auto Body, Cinema Spa Apartments, etc.--we are informed that Poplarville, Miss., does have a Hollywood Stars Lingerie Co. It’s next to the town cemetery.

But back to L.A. Maybe you noticed this brief story the other day: A big-rig carrying 3,000 live chickens had dumped its feathery load on the Long Beach Freeway, just east of downtown. The owners, who had sent in a crew of special fowl police (armed with hooks and nets), said afterward that all of the prisoners were captured.

Sad, if true. After all, rush-hour motorists desperately need roadside diversions.

We refuse to give up hope that there were escapees. After all, when a poultry truck crashed near the Vineland off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway a couple of decades ago, authorities claimed that they had rounded up all the occupants, too. In reality, the mishap spawned a tribe known as the Freeway Chickens, who were tended for years by a 90-ish retiree named Minnie Blumfield.

A company even came out with a video game, “Freeway Chickens,” in which motorists received points for running over the title characters. A real Hollywood-type tribute.

miscelLAny:

In one episode of the 1970s TV series, “All in the Family,” Archie Bunker contemplated getting away from it all by moving to El Monte.