Tradition going strong

The stretch of beach at 8th Street on the Balboa Peninsula is where the Lunde family kids came to swim and play as children. It’s the spot where they feel closest to their brother and son, Gray Lunde, who died of a heart defect at 14.

When Gray’s brother Cole Lunde watches the junior lifeguards cross the finish line on the sand in the annual Gray Lunde Ironman, it’s a reminder of his athletic brother who always excelled in competition.

It’s been more than 10 years since Gray Lunde was warming up for water polo practice with his Newport Harbor High School team and collapsed. Doctors said Gray had a congenital heart condition.

Cole Lunde said he remembers his brother running alongside the Ironman race course before he was old enough to participate.

“He was always at junior lifeguard events; he was very fit and very good at a young age at this stuff,” Cole Lunde said.

The Newport Beach Junior Lifeguards had always held an Ironman competition and after Gray Lunde died, the event was named after him.

The Gray Lunde Ironman is an optional challenge open to all junior lifeguards and has become a tradition for many Newport-Mesa kids and their families.

The race starts at the Santa Ana River jetty with a 5 1/2 -mile run down to the Balboa Pier, where the kids finish with a one-mile ocean swim.

“I like this event because there’s not all that equipment; it’s just kind of raw,” Junior Lifeguard group leader Mike Campbellsaid.

In the brilliant Saturday morning sun, parents lined the course and cheered on their kids, leaning over the railing of the Balboa Pier smiling and yelling. Fathers Dave Burger and Ben Wight were at the finish line to support their children participating in the race.

Burger’s children, 16-year-old Jimmy and 14-year-old Chrissy, have taken part in the race every year they’ve been in junior guards.

All of Wight’s children have gone through junior guards, and his 13-year-old daughter, Mary Rose, ran and swam in Saturday’s Ironman.

“They’ve learned a lot, more than running and swimming,” Burger said.

Newport Beach resident Ally McCormick, 11, was the first girl to finish Saturday’s race. Chugging a cup of Gatorade and still catching her breath, Ally said the race was hard but “a lot of fun.”

“It’s cold,” Ally said of the water. “But after a run, it feels real nice.”

Ally said she planned to go home to rest, but some of the other competitors had something else in mind. Fathers Burger and White said after finishing the race, their kids needed a necessary stop for some refueling — perhaps a hearty breakfast at Ruby’s or Mutt Lynch’s by the Newport Pier.