Flip,
Lenbert told me beach hotel pick up is around 2:30. If you are checked in by then I think it's a great way to start the vacation. Last year some of the people left the crawl towards the end to have dinner on the cliffs. They just took a taxi back to their hotel.
I'd consider doing the crawl first day but we have a 5am departure from BWI and we are 2.5 hours away. So I'm sure we will do some napping on the beach.
Timm