Celebs, LIers take Murph Challenge for Navy Seal Lt. Murphy

When the routine of pushups, pullups and squats seemed like it would never end, 13-year-old Abigail Hoffman said she drew inspiration from late Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy — the namesake for Monday’s Memorial Day Murph Challenge at Coast Guard Station Jones Beach.

In the toughest moments, the Babylon teenager said she told herself to “just stay strong, keep going.”

It worked.

Hoffman completed the challenge alongside about 50 others at the annual event that organizers turned into a fundraiser for the first time this year.

Murphy, 29, of Patchogue was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor after he was shot and killed trying to save fellow soldiers in a 2005 gunfight in eastern Afghanistan.

“I love the fact that he put others first,” Hoffman said.

Murphy’s own brutal workout — a mile run followed by 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats and another mile-long run — has been adopted by the CrossFit exercise community and renamed “The Murph.”

“About halfway through, I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to finish this,’ ” said Coast Guard Seaman Tyler Letendre, 18, of Rhode Island, and stationed at the Jones Beach Coast Guard station.

Letendre said he participated in the challenge to “give back” to the men and women who serve overseas in the armed forces.

Murphy’s memory has become legendary among members of the U.S. armed forces and beyond after his ordeal was made into a book and movie, both titled “Lone Survivor.”

A pair of Hollywood actors with military roles on their resumes got into the Murph Challenge spirit Monday. In a video clip on his Twitter page, John Krasinski, who played a former Navy SEAL in the 2016 film “13 Hours,” and Chris Pratt, who played a SEAL in 2012’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” talk about their completion of the Murphy Challenge Monday while urging others to go online and support veterans.

“Pick up a shirt and learn about Mike Murphy,” said Pratt, who played a member of SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden. “He is just one of the many, many brave men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country.”

He led a four-man Navy SEAL team on a reconnaissance mission to scout the leader of a Taliban-aligned terrorist group, according to the U.S. Navy’s website. When the team’s location was compromised, Murphy risked his life seeking out open terrain to make a distress call — taking a bullet in the back in the process. His actions saved the life of a fellow SEAL.

“Michael always seemed to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason,” his father, Daniel J. Murphy of Wading River, said Monday. “That’s a sure sign of leadership. Whenever I think about Michael, I think . . . the only life he felt worth living was helping others.”

“The Murph” has become a popular Memorial Day workout, nationwide, to remind participants of the sacrifices made by Murphy and other veterans.

“The Murph Challenge and all these folks that do this bring forth the idea that Memorial Day is special,” Daniel J. Murphy said. “We’re trying to bring to the attention of the American people that Memorial Day represents a time of reflection and remembrance of all those who have sacrificed for this great country.”

All proceeds from T-shirts and bracelets sold for the event will go to charities, with 50 percent going to the Riverhead-based Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation. Another 30 percent will go to the Tampa, Florida-based Special Operations Warrior Foundation, and 20 percent will go to the Las Vegas-based That Others May Live Foundation.