Some Would Like to Stunt Growth of These Runners : L.A. Marathon: Competitors such as Fanelli, Coat Man and Pancake Man upset running purists, but others applaud them.

They swarm like pests. There is no spray to repel them and they do not respond to commands to leave. They can’t be prevented or avoided, but they aren’t to be encouraged.

They are stunt runners, and they turn up at every major road race and marathon seeking notoriety, media exposure and, often, money from race directors.

They are selling themselves and their stunts, which, they say, will entertain the spectators and offer comic relief from watching streams of huffing recreational runners.

Penny Man runs in a suit made of strung-together pennies--a penny shirt and penny pants. The ill-named Cow Man runs with the stuffed head of a buffalo placed on top of his own. Some stunt runners juggle, run backward, skip, dance or run on their hands. Waiters run while balancing trays of mixed drinks.

Pancake Man runs marathons while carrying a skillet and flipping pancakes. Coat Man has run 39 consecutive marathons while wearing a winter coat. Gary Fanelli, the much-acclaimed king of costume, runs in whatever attire he is in the mood for: Billy Chester Polyester, in 100% synthetic clothing; Calculating Clarence Nerdelbaum, with a calculator and a pocket protector full of pens and mechanical pencils; Yogi High Karma, a wacko guru; and Fanelli’s first and most lasting creation, Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers.

They will be there at the start of today’s seventh Los Angeles Marathon--in the back, elbowing their way to front, to the television cameras. That stunt runners sometimes dominate television time grates on some race directors, who are philosophically opposed to comic portrayal of runners.

“We actively discourage them,” said Fred Lebow, director of the New York City Marathon, long a Mecca for stunt runners, who say they are encouraged to antic heights by New York’s spectators.

“I’m sure the people love it. They love anything that’s different, especially after seeing 20,000 runners. But I think it demeans the runners. How would you feel? There is a guy running a marathon while juggling five balls and others struggling to just run at the same pace. If you want to run backward, run in a backward race.”

That would be the Backwards Race, held in Central Park every year on April 1.

Some running purists--stunt runners call them old fashioned--say there is no place in a legitimate race for runners in clown suits or pushing baby buggies.

Jeff Darman, a race director and race consultant based in Washington, D.C., said running shouldn’t always be serious, but. . . .

“No matter how silly the race, if a client wanted me to put in the Coat Man, I’d give up the client rather than bring in the Coat Man. I’m not prudish. I guess it’s just a matter of taste. If I pay to bring people in for a race, I want the spectators to applaud them, not to make fun of them.

“Besides, for wackos, I don’t have to go out of state. This is Washington.”

Gary Fanelli was watering flowers at his home in Hawaii when the phone rang. Would he talk about stunt running? Would he!

“I’m an entertainer,” he said. “I wear costumes for the people, so they can loosen up and not be stuffed shirts. It’s an uptight world, and this is one way to relax. Races are like a parade of humanity. I know it’s OK to wear a costume. I don’t need people’s approval.”

Fanelli has been in the costume business since 1979, when he broke in his Blues Brothers outfit--sharkskin suit, skinny tie, hat and sunglasses. He wore the suit at a race in Philadelphia and won.

“It blew everyone’s mind,” he said.

What blew the minds of many was the waste. Fanelli was a world-class middle distance runner. He led the 1988 U.S. Olympic marathon trials for 15 miles before dropping back. Fanelli was in the top 10 among American runners for several years.

He simply found it more fulfilling to run in character. Fanelli has traveled the world, running in costume, and he is one of the few stunt runners who have made a living from the game.

In 1986, after the New York Mets won the World Series, Fanelli ran the New York Marathon in a Mets’ uniform, with a ball and a glove. He stopped during the race to play catch with spectators, and at the finish line, he slid across.

His Ghostbusters outfit was the most taxing, he said. Fanelli wore a sheet bearing the Ghostbusters’ logo. Underneath he placed a boom box in a backpack, with the movie’s “Who you gonna call?” theme playing continuously.

His characters have always been topical. One of Fanelli’s latest costumes really isn’t a fake. In 1988, he made the Olympic team of American Somoa. He said he was nicknamed Tafuna Slim, as the skinniest guy on the team.

So Fanelli wasn’t really in costume when he lined up for the master’s mile at last month’s Millrose Games . . . wearing a lavalava. Shortly before the gun went off he theatrically unwrapped the skirt-like cloth, revealing running shorts.

Coat Man, 41, is Dennis Marsella, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale and will be running his sixth Los Angeles Marathon today. The race will also be Coat Man’s 40th consecutive marathon run while wearing a winter coat. The streak began at the Orange Bowl Marathon in 1981.

He has referred to his streak as “one of the most remarkable feats in the history of distance running.”

Coat Man also will carry a 2 1/2-foot inflatable beer bottle, provided by a sponsor.

“Yeah, the coat gets a little heavy. Something that size against the air gets to be a hassle,” he said. “This is a new coat. The one I started with was 20 years old and it started to shred. This new one is blue denim, 32 inches long and 42 inches in the chest.

“It’s triple lined, and, I think, a little heavier than the old one. Some people think it would be OK to run in just any coat. But for this stunt to be official, the coat has to be a winter coat. That’s not the Coat Man standard. The definition of a winter coat is one that you would put on in 45-degree weather to go to the store.

“As an athlete, this is an artistic expression. I’m an athlete. I run and finish all my races. I’ve never failed to go the distance. Last year in L.A., they had the Pancake Man. But he’s only flipping those light pancakes. I passed the Perrier Man in New York. I have no animosity toward those guys. But the penny guy, he’s got pennies strung on fishing line. There are four-inch gaps between pennies. He’s got big open spaces there. It may look great, but what does it weigh? What’s the heat factor? It’s not like it’s wall-to-wall pennies.

“I think what I do is like figure skating. There’s technique. There’s artistry. And there’s degree of difficulty. This pancake guy, he’s running down a street flipping a light pancake. But he’s not running while cooking hot in a winter coat. There have always been stunt runners. But a lot of them are full-blown phony stuff. They don’t do anything difficult.

“I carry the plastic beer bottle now. I have to kind of grip it just right. People have asked me why I don’t just Velcro some kind of handle onto it. Because it’s an athletic feat and I don’t want to take away from it, that’s why.”

Race directors acknowledge they can do little to prevent stunt runners from entering their races, especially because few announce themselves on the entry forms. The directors also are wary of discouraging runners who carry signs or wear T-shirts to raise money for charity.

“One guy we had to stop,” Lebow said. “He was running while pushing a wheelbarrow. He said he was raising money for charity.”

At the Chicago Marathon, race director Carey Pinkowski takes a more tolerant attitude. “It’s like casting a play,” he said. “I think there can be room for everyone. If it helps promote the race, we’ll think about it.”

Then there are races that are almost exclusively for costumes and stunts. Scores of Halloween night races require a costume. Lebow promotes a New Year’s Eve race in which male runners are in black tie and women wear evening gowns. At the halfway point, everyone stops at a refreshment station for champagne.

The Super Bowl 10K at Redondo Beach can be counted on to provide an eclectic mix of elite runners and weekend joggers in full football uniforms.

But the most notorious and emphatically off-center race is San Francisco’s Bay-to-Breakers. The 12-kilometer race has been run for 81 years and annually features more than 100,000 oddly costumed runners.

Unlike elite events, Bay-to-Breakers solicits zanies to run with the race’s elite field.

“We encourage it,” race director Linda Luchetti said. “The more the merrier. We can’t get enough of them. We actively recruit them. It’s what makes Bay-to-Breakers so well known. We refuse to accept anything that is standard or boring.”

Understandably, stunt runners flock to Bay-to-Breakers, even though, as they point out, their stunts get lost in the crowd.

“Bad taste is acceptable,” Luchetti said. “It’s San Francisco. You can get away with it.”

L.A. MARATHON

Facts and Figures

* WHO--20,000 runners from around the world.

* WHEN--Today. Wheelchairs start at 8:35 a.m., racewalkers at 8:45, runners at 9:05, 5K runners at 9:30.

* WHERE--Starts in front of the Coliseum, at the intersection of Exposition and Figueroa. Finish on North Coliseum Drive, at peristyle end of Coliseum.

* WHY--The race also serves as an the Olympic trial for selected runners from Mexico and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the former Soviet Union.

* TV-RADIO--Live local television coverage on KCOP Channel 13 beginning at 8 a.m. Live radio coverage on KABC, beginning at 7 a.m.