By By PETER WILLIAMS, Staff Writer
Training for a 13.1 mile road race is hard.
Explaining to her kids that winning isn’t everything, is harder according to Emma Holscher.
Holscher, 37, finished her first half marathon in Virginia Beach in 2001 with a time of just over two hours. She was pleased with the result even though the winner did the same course in about half that time. But just finishing was a victory.
There were 21,000 runners registered for the Rock-n-Roll half marathon last year and 5,000 didn’t cross the finish line.
For Holscher it’s not about winning, but about improving.
Yet in 2001, year after the birth of their son, Emma and husband Franz entered her first half marathon, the 13.1-mile race in the inaugural Rock-n-Roll half in Virginia Beach.
The effort paid off.
Marathon runners carry microchips in their shoes that record when they pass over detectors at the start, finish and middle of the race.
Emma trains five times a week and runs about 20 to 25 miles a week.
The next Rock ‘n’ Roll race is set for Sept. 2. It features a flat course that stretches through beach communities in the Virginia Beach area.
After the race, runners can experience a post-race Finish Line Beach Party on the sand as well as a headliner concert that evening. Music is a feature throughout the entire race however. Twenty bands are set to perform every mile or so as well as 16 high school cheerleading squads.
Emma’s first race was also Franz’s last competitive race even though he still runs off and on.