VIDEO: Contestants claw their way to glory in Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

Ten-year-old Kaleb Raphael figured a laid-back approach to training might work well for his contestant, Claw. So, he mostly just left the hermit crab to explore its container in advance of the big race.

"I know he pops out on his own pace," Kaleb, of Columbus, Ohio, said, after registering for Saturday's Mid-Atlantic Hermit Crab Challenge. "It's all pretty much up to him."

The hands-off tactic paid off.

Claw clambered his way toward the line when the race started and earned a shot at the next round. His container-mate, a fist-size monster named Delilah, also qualified, but not before mauling another crab and zigzagging across the board.

Hundreds of beachgoers and crab owners converged Saturday on the event area below the seawall at 29th Street.

The sixth annual challenge featured 249 crabs racing on an 8-foot-diameter board. Many of those crabs also vied in a beauty contest for the title of Miss Curvaceous Crustacean, said Mike Hilton, marketing director for Beachevents.

The races, however, appeared to be the biggest draw, with dozens of spectators crowding the rope to watch.

"Doesn't this make you want to bring a hermit crab today?" asked Denise McClure, whose 11-year-old daughter, Summer, was preparing her crab to race.

Moments earlier, Summer had found the crustacean slumbering in his Gladware container. The situation didn't improve when the race started.

As others scattered, Summer's crab hunkered down at the start. There wasn't any sign that her crab had undergone a monthlong regimen of eating kale and running across carpeted floors at their Virginia Beach home.

Cort Durham, 8, of the Charlottesville area also worried that his crab might not beat his father's, which appeared to be resting before the race. Cort's crab later made a beeline to the finish and won its race.

His sister's crab, however, didn't move. Neither did the one that he had seen his father train on their hotel floor.

"We were hoping he was going to be a sleeper," Cort's father, Trey, said of the crab, "but instead, he was just sleeping."

Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com