Brigantine lifeguard a top sprinter in summer races,
but she also does grueling 30-plus-mile competitions
OCEAN CITY — Brigantine lifeguard Grace Emig was the quickest around the 300-meter paddleboard course in the first leg of the relay during the Ocean City Beach Patrol Women’s Lifeguard Invitational on July 16. Emig had won the paddleboard event at the Longport Women’s Lifeguard Invitational a week earlier on a slightly longer course.
But those were nothing, at least in terms of distance. It’s hard to imagine she broke a sweat even though Emig acknowledges doing the sprints in the lifeguard races are tougher now because she is training for distance.
“I was a sprinter my whole life but now I’m doing a lot of distance, so this (lifeguard races) makes me a little more nervous than it used to,” she said.
When she says she’s training for distance, she isn’t kidding around.
Emig, who can paddle for miles and miles, is getting ready to head to the Catalina Classic on Aug. 25. It is a 32-mile paddleboard race from Catalina Island in California to the Manhattan Beach Pier. Two months later, she’s doing the Chattajack 31 — a 31-mile paddle down the Chattanooga River through the Tennessee River Gorge on Oct. 26.
It will be the third time she’s competed in the Catalina Classic and these summer lifeguard race sprints are coming in the middle of her 16-week training regimen to prepare for it.
“I start at the end of April, beginning of May and go all the way to the Catalina. This is the first year I’ll be doing the Chattajack so I’ll have to figure out how to transfer the training over into such a short amount of time.”
There will be only about eight weeks between the Catalina Classic and the Chattajack 31.
On a given day, Emig will paddle between 5 and 15 miles.
“I do about 20 to 30 (miles) a week when training,” she said.
Although the length of time it takes to complete a 32-mile race can vary depending on conditions, the first time she did the Catalina Classic it took her seven hours and 50 minutes.
Last year, it took her eight hours and 50 minutes “because the conditions were horrible. Hopefully this year we have some good conditions for the Catalina.”
As for the Chattajack, she’s hoping there’s “a nice little flow down the river to help push us a little bit.”
Emig said she doesn’t take breaks during the grueling distance events.
“I have an escort boat. We’re required to have a boat captain for the Catalina and my dad and my boyfriend are on it,” she said. “They give me fuel whenever I need it so I have them switch out my water bottles with protein and electrolytes and then I’ll have different kinds of nutrition stuff on my board so I can eat it when I need it.”
“It’s crazy. It takes everything out of you,” Emig said. “But it’s fun. I love it and lifeguarding is the reason I do it.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff