Memorial Beach Challenge in Ocean City Draws Big Crowds

A water-filled sandpit serves as one of the obstacles in the beach race of the Memorial Beach Challenge in Ocean City, NJ on May 23, 2015. Thousands of spectators and competitors filled the beach and boardwalk Saturday morning in Ocean City for the third annual Memorial Beach Challenge. The event attracted a field of more than 500 for a beach obstacle course race between Fifth and 14th streets. More than 200 children participated in a kids' run, and another handful of individuals and relays competed in a paddleboard race. In just its third year, the event promises to become a Memorial Day Weekend tradition in Ocean City. Henry Notaro, 53, of Northfield, wins the beach obstacle course race. Henry Notaro, a 53-year-old builder from Northfield, won the beach race, which includes a course over sand mounds and into water-filled pits and other hazards. "It was the toughest workout I ever did," said Notaro, a three-hour marathoner. The hardest part? "Had to be those damned moguls ... and running in the sand comes a close second," Notaro said. "But I never had more fun in my life." Brian Pasternak won the individual paddleboard event on a 12-foot prone board. Brian Pasternak, a 31-year-old member of the Ocean City Beach Patrol, won the individual paddleboard competition on a 12-foot prone board. Pasternak said he had an advantage paddling into the wind over Sven Peltonen, who finished second on a 14-foot stand-up paddleboard. Peltonen had won the individual event in its first two years. The race featured a triangular course with competitors competing loops that included legs in and out of the surf and obstacles on the beach. A pair of competitors in the kids' run crest a sand mound on the way to the finish line. Lukevics said the event raised $35,000 last year, and she expects that three-year fundraising total from the Memorial Beach Challenge to exceed $100,000. What started as a single CrossFit workout in 2011 has now become a nationwide series of competitions that benefit veterans' families. "It gives athletes a way to give back," Lukevics said. Mike Vaules, a former Ocean City Beach Patrol member and one of the organizers who helped bring the event to Ocean City in 2013, said the mission of the Beach Challenge is not lost even on his own young children, who participated in the kids' run. "They understand the meaning of Memorial Day," Vaules said.

• Check for complete results from the event (which had not been posted as of early Saturday afternoon): MemorialBeachChallenge.com
• Share your photos on social media. Use #mbc2015 as a hashtag.

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