This Race Will Be Quite a Road Trip : Running: Just finishing Trans-Am ‘92, a 64-day event from Huntington Beach to New York City, will be difficult enough.

The folks in Frisco, Colo., thought his proposal a bit unusual. Down the road in Parachute, it was tabbed as peculiar. And in nearby Denver? Blank stares all the way.

And so it goes for Michael Kenney, race manager of that wildly popular, internationally famous sporting event no one can stop talking about . . . Trans-Am ’92.

Trans what ?

Go ahead and ask, Kenney says. Everyone else does.

Trans-Am ’92 is a 64-day ultrarunning race from Huntington Beach to New York City. At 5 a.m. June 20, a maximum of 25 runners will start on the bike trail at the Santa Ana River jetty and run to Ontario, approximately 50 miles away.

That’s Day 1.

Sixty-three days later, at an average of 45 miles per day, the race is scheduled to come to a glorious finish in New York’s Central Park.

That’s the idea, anyway. If you have your doubts, get in line. The Loch Ness Monster should have so many skeptics.

“You could say there are some people out there who wonder if anyone will finish the thing,” says Kenney, a resident of Eugene, Ore. “Especially when we tell them the dates. They say, ‘Oh my god! The middle of summer? But it’s so hot then!’ ”

But Kenney, 33, has faith. And thus his current mission: Cruise and schmooze. Since March 1, Kenney has been on the road, driving the race course, and stopping in each of 64 stops. He spends his days meeting with mayors, city council members, the guy who owns the only gas station in town . . . anyone who might be converted into a Trans-Am supporter.

Actually, all Kenney is looking for is a low-cost place for the runners to sleep. High school gymnasiums, church basements, front yards, wherever. He has to be realistic.

The race has no official sponsor yet--although Runner’s World magazine is interested, Kenney says--so, at this point, the $200-per-runner entry fee constitutes the event’s entire budget. Liability insurance--the race requires $1 million in coverage, Kenney says--is the greatest expense. The entry fee also provides each runner with a place to bed down for the night--usually in sleeping bags or cots--and water and snacks at aid stations two miles apart.

“The $200 will also include whatever awards we hand out at the finish,” Kenney says. “Probably little plastic trophies or something.”

Ah. So that’s the incentive.

Kenney, a longtime ultrarunner, says history proves the event can work. For instance:

--In 1928, Kenney says, promoter C.C. Pyle organized the Bunion Derby, a race from Los Angeles to New York. Pyle’s idea was to stage a runner’s version of the Tour de France. There was $25,000 in prize money--a fortune in Depression years--and an entry fee of $50. Nearly 200 runners entered the race.

“They were offering three meals a day,” Kenney says, “so there were a lot of bums coming out of the woodwork willing to run. I think about 55 or 57 people finished.”

--In 1985, Marvin Skagerberg and Malcomb Campbell ran a match race across the country for charity. “They had no problem at all,” Kenney says. “They ran at an easy enough pace so they didn’t get hurt.”

In the Trans-Am--which, like Skagerberg/Campbell and the Bunion Derby, stays on Route 66 a good part of the way--runners will start each day at 5 a.m.

There is a minimum pace of 3.5 miles per hour, or 20 minutes per mile, which would allow runners to reach rest stops by about 9:30 each night. Those slower become “journey runners,” eliminated from competition but invited to tag along for fun.

Huntington Beach ultrarunner David Warady hopes to be among the leaders. He hopes to average 5 to 5.5 miles per hour.

“It’s an incredible challenge,” says Warady, 35, who’s currently training 140 miles per week but will increase to 150-200 per week by the end of the month. “But my personality fits this race perfectly, really. I have a lot of endurance and a lot of patience, I’m able to train at high levels and recover.”

Kenney wants to run the race, too, but figures someone had to get it going before it could become an annual event. Next year, he hopes to compete and let someone else do the work. For now, Kenney, who earns $6 an hour at a Eugene rehabilitation center where he teaches job skills to the mentally and physically disabled, estimates he’s spent about $10,000 of his own money on the race.

Aside from postage, phone bills and a very small amount of advertising--look for the Trans-Am ’92 ad in Ultrarunning magazine--the greatest expense so far has been gasoline for his scouting trip. He’s averaging only 10 miles per gallon.

Blame that on the Big Green Whale--a.k.a. the 1974 Dodge camper van, dark green with bubble top, that Kenney bought for the trip. Kenney paid $2,000 for the van, which recently hit the 100,000-mile mark. So far, the Whale broke down in Vail, Colo.--loose wire, it turned out--and got its bumper stuck in a chicken-wire fence just down the road in Frisco.

At least it’s easy to recognize, as is Kenney. He’s the guy talking to himself as he drives down the road. A voice-activated tape recorder helps him make notes about the race course. He spends two hours a night transcribing the tape into a notebook.

A few observations:

--Kelso, Calif., Day 6. Kelso is basically a ghost town, dotted with burned-out shacks and some trailers. Couldn’t find any place to sleep, so runners will be camping out on the side of the road.

Keep your eyes out. The place is loaded with guard dogs.

--Las Vegas, Nev., Day 8. There must be at least a million rooms in this town, but no one will comp or discount a single one. City fathers said they could give us a “proc.” (proclamation), though. Whoopee.

--Interstate-70 Rest Stop (Utah milepost 115). Day 17. No place to stay for 100 miles, so another night of camping here. Beautiful area, though. Lots of bristlecone pines and soft dirt for sleeping. Incredible vistas of tabletop mesas. Incredible sunrise.

--In Parachute, Colo., a town of 685 along the Colorado River, runners pass the site of a famous train robbery. “Kid Curry” got away with loads of gold that was never recovered. When Kid Curry was captured, he shot himself in the head. Runners will sleep in the high school gym.

Judy Beasley, wife of Parachute Mayor J.D. Beasley and owner of the town’s Indian craft trading post, says the Trans-Am race sounded a bit “peculiar” when Kenney first told her about it, but she’ll support it.

Asked if the runners had any chance of getting lost while running through Parachute, Beasley said: “If they do, it’ll require some clever mess on their part, that’s for sure.”

Trans-Am ‘92: Huntington Beach to New York City Twenty-five runners will leave the Santa Ana River Jetty at 5 a.m. June 20 on a grueling, 2,804-mile cross-country race. Sixty-four days later, the winner is expected to cross the finish line at Central Park in New York City. Start: Huntington Beach Begins at sea level, where the Santa Ana River Jetty meets the sea (Huntington Beach side) High point: Loveland Pass In Colorado, the highest point on the course: 11,992 feet Finish: New York City Aug. 23 in Central Park 64 Stopovers California Ontario Victorville Barstow Ludlow Amboy Kelso Nevada State Line Las Vegas Glendale Mesquite Utah St. George Cedar City Beaver Sevier Salina I-70 rest stop (Utah milepost 84) I-70 rest stop (Utah milepost 115) Green River Cisco Colorado Fruita Parachute Glenwood Springs Eagle Frisco Idaho Springs Denver Byers Anton Joes Kansas St. Francis Atwood Prairie Dog State Park Kensington Formoso Washington Home Hiawatha St. Joseph Missouri Hamilton Brookfield Clarence Hannibal Illinois Pittsfield New Berlin Decatur Newman Indiana Hollandsburg Indianapolis Cambridge City Ohio Lewisburg S. Vienna Etna New Concord St. Clairsville Pennsylvania Monongahela Ligonier Schellsburg Fort Louden New Oxford Lancaster Villanova New Jersey Princeton West Caldwell New York New York City Source: TransAm ’92