Warady Finishes First in 3,000 (Miles) : Running: Huntington Beach man, 35, crosses the continent in 521:35:57 and wins by way, way more than a mile.

David Warady stood at a telephone in the back of a crowded New York restaurant and calmly described the road race he had just won as if it had been a community 10K.

“I knew I had the leg speed, and I knew I was mentally tough enough,” he said. “We put a good plan together, and it was just a matter of going out and executing that plan.”

The distance: a little over 3,000 miles. The winning time: 521 hours 35 minutes 57 seconds. The prize: a small crystal trophy.

Warady, a 35-year-old computer programmer from Huntington Beach, confirmed what had been a foregone conclusion for days--and a possibility in his mind from the beginning--when he won the 64-day Runner’s World Trans America Footrace, running through a tape near the statue of Christopher Columbus at an entrance to New York City’s Central Park.

As strange as it might sound when describing such an event, Warady won easily. After building a lead of 18:33:09 during a stage Aug. 10 in Ohio, he spent the next 12 days conserving energy for late challenges. He defeated 32-year-old Milan Milanovic of Switzerland by 5:40:24.

Warady said he and John Loeschhorn, a police officer who has been a long-time coach and adviser to local runners, began discussing a plan of a attack more than a year ago.

“We tried to account for all the different scenarios that might arise during a race of this kind and come up with a plan for each one,” Warady said.

Warady said Loeschhorn actually had predicted the possibility of such an accomplishment in 1986, when Warady first moved to the county from Northern California and sought his advice.

“He told me that with my ability to train hard every day, work and then come back and train again, that I’d be an ideal candidate for a stage-type race,” Warady said. “Now six years later, it happens.”

Warady led for the first time June 30 after the 11th stage over 46.25 miles from Mesquite, Nev., to St. George, Utah. When he reached Anton, Colo., on July 17, Warady had built the advantage to 6:46:02.

But as the runners came down from the mountains and onto the plains, it quickly dissipated. Tom Rogozinski of Hagerstown, Md., picked up his pace and took over when he made up 90 minutes on the 36th stage from Cuba to Marysville, Kan.

By the time Rogozinski, 24, had won his fifth stage in a row July 28, his lead was 3:11:22.

Still, Warady said, he wasn’t worried.

“I was injured at the time Tom was catching up to me,” he said. “I knew it was just a matter of time before I had my up cycle and he had his down cycle.

“I was totally confident. You have cycles where you run good and where you are injured and you run bad, and then you recover. I had wider windows than anybody else, and I had fewer cycles.”

In six days, Warady had the lead for good. With Rogozinski battling sickness July 31, Warady went from 1:15:32 behind to 49:15 ahead during a 51-mile stage from Clarence to Hannibal, Mo. Ten days later, with Rogozinski battling a stress fracture, Warady had put the race out of reach.

Conventional running wisdom is that injuries require rest to heal properly, but Warady said his unique needs required a different approach.

“When you have a goal of getting to New York, you force yourself to recover faster,” he said. “Your body learns how to do it.”

Warady’s injury inventory: “Nineteen days of tendinitis in my ankles, nine on my left and 10 on my right; an inflamed tendon behind my knee; a day or two of shin splints; a day or two of bad arches, a few days of Achilles’ tendinitis.

“You just have to relax and wait until your body heals itself,” he said

He said his big lead with 12 stages left made that easier.

“The last couple of weeks, I could just kick back and let the guys catch up an hour or an hour and a half a day,” he said. “It was healing me up. If one of them made a really mad dash, I’d be completely rested.

“It doesn’t matter if you win by 20 hours or four.”

Throughout the event, he had the support of his wife, Kelly Babiak, who drove their rented minivan--Warady says he spent about $10,000 on the race--offering cool drinks, ice and encouragement.

Immediately after each stage, Warady said he would go to lunch . . . and order two full dinners. At dinner time, he’d eat two more.

Attention carbo-loaders: “A real key component of my diet was at least one steak a day, the biggest I could find on the menu.

“Carbohydrates replace your (energy stores),” he said, “but they don’t do anything for torn muscle tissue. I think fleshy meats are a lot better for that.”

Warady grew up in Chicago swimming and playing basketball and football. He started running when he was in college--though not for school teams--and said his marathon best was 2:34 run in Las Vegas in 1991.

He is a data-base programmer for Electronic Data Systems in Cypress. Whether he’d take another long vacation to defend his title is up in the air.

“It would probably have to be with a full sponsor, which might be a little easier to get now that I’ve won,” he said.

Warady was headed back to the restaurant, where had just had the luxury of drinking two beers.

“That’s twice as many as I’ve had the last 9 1/2 weeks,” he said.

Final results (13 finishers out of 26 starters):

1. David Warady, 35, Huntington Beach, 521 hours 35 minutes 57 seconds; 2. Milan Milanovic, 32, Switzerland, 527:16:21; 3. Tom Rogozinski, 24, Hagerstown, Md., 528:48:54; 4. Richard Westbrook, 45, Jonesboro, Ga., 537:33:04; 5. Emile Laharrague, 45, France, 542:38:03; 6. Edward Kelley, 34, Hollywood, 545:09:45; 7. Helmut Schieke, 53, Germany, 563:05:40; 8. Peter Hodson, 37, Britain, 575:50:42; 9. Stefan Schlett, 30, Germany, 619:28:22; 10. Marty Spengelmeyer, 46, Davenport, Iowa, 625:27:15; 11. John Wallis, 55, Ludington, Mich., 653:14:37; 12. John Surdyk, 36, Cicero, Ill., 693:36:25; 13. Serge Debladis, 44, France, 793:35:15.