HAMPTON BEACH — Less than 20 hours after his team began a 200-plus mile race from Cannon Mountain, Brian Quinn of Pennsylvania was the first of more than 400 runners to cross the Reach the Beach Relay-New Hampshire finish line at Hampton Beach State Park on Saturday morning.

Bright red and breathing heavily, Quinn called the last leg of the course from Ocean Boulevard through the dry beach sand to the chute “miserable” and “cruel.”

“I never want to do that again,” Quinn said as his teammates patted him on the back.

Jerry Sellars was the second runner to cross the finish line, just minutes after Quinn, in his first Reach the Beach event.

He said he was feeling a lot better about his finish before he hit the beach sand. His team, “Coffee is for Closers,” finished 11th overall.

Start times were staggered to avoid traffic jams and large groupings of runners throughout the course, and the last teams were expected to cross the finish line by 8 p.m. Saturday.

Some finishing teams took advantage of the nearby surf, jumping into the water while still in their running shorts, and proudly wearing their medals after a grueling but social race that took them through 32 New Hampshire communities.

The first-place finisher was Team SFCMXC, made up of alumni ranging in age from 24 to 35 from St. Francis College in Pennsylvania.

The team averaged 5 minutes, 50 seconds per mile and finished the course in 19 hours, 44 minutes, 59 seconds. They outpaced last year’s winning team by three seconds per mile.

This was the 14th year for Reach the Beach-New Hampshire and more than 5,000 runners participated on 429 teams. Although Reach the Beach is a for-profit organization, many community groups and larger nonprofits benefit from the event.

“I think it really works well. Communities get something back and they love it. It brings a lot of people through and the runners are excited and having fun,” race organizer Mike Dionne said.

What he likes best about the relay race is the social aspect.

“It is like a roadtrip for adults,” Dionne said.

Teams are made up of 12 members who take turns running various legs of the race, while vans full of teammates travel nearby.

Along the 200-mile course, churches, Rotary clubs, schools and scouting groups provide resting places, meals, showers, entertainment and support to the runners as they make their way from the mountains to the sea.

“You go do a marathon or a half-marathon and it’s about you. Now it is about a bunch of people getting together,” Sellars, of Chicago, said.

J.R. Bair of Westchester, Pa., was a member of the SFCMXC team and said the event reminded team members of their “glory days” running cross-country for St. Francis College, and they came into the race with the same mentality they used to win then.

“Grind it out. No frills,” Bair said.

Kevin Doyle of Ebensburg, Pa., said the course offers many challenges, from the ups and downs to running in the middle of the night led by the blinking red lights of the runners at the front.

He said the team planned to “eat, drink and be merry” before crashing, which he expected would happen sooner rather than later.

Hampton Beach State Park was turned into an end-of-race paradise with a giant beer tent sponsored by the Hampton Rotary Club and Redhook Brewery, food provided by Boloco in Concord, massages offered to runners by the Hesser College Massage Therapy Department and other booths.