Two hundred miles from the Earth, British astronaut Tim Peake ran, and finished, the London Marathon on Sunday from the International Space Station. He ran 26.2 miles in a time of 3:35:21. Not only did he accomplish the feat, but, via video link up, he officially started the race.
The challenge with running the London Marathon from the middle of outer space is that Peake has to wear a harness that will prevent him from just floating off the treadmill and hit the ceiling. He had a special harness but, for Peake, it took some getting used to.
“These chains connect to a bungee system and that keeps me on the treadmill and gives me the weight bearing that I need on my legs to stimulate those muscles and to make sure we don’t lose too much muscle mass, that we don’t lose too much bone density.”
For Peake, it was a return to something that he has long treasured and remembered. He, also, ran the London Marathon in 1999. In the two weeks leading up to the marathon, Peake had only time for 6 runs on the treadmill each lasting about two hours. He wasn’t sure if he had trained hard enough to finish.
“I don’t think you can ever do enough training for a marathon,” he said.
Running on the treadmill in space does offer the advantage of only having to run and carry about 70% of his total body weight. Unlike the other runners, too, he will have no cheering friends and family. All he had was his iPad and the app called Run Social. The app showed him the streets of London as he ran them but did not offer the cheers.
All of the other astronauts on the space station were eager to help Peake prepare and they were right along side him cheering and offering encouragement during his three hours run. He was also monitored back on Earth by specialists at the European Space Agency so that they could keep track of his body’s progress throughout the ordeal.
Peake is now the second astronaut to run a marathon in outer space. The first, in 2007 ,was by Sunita Williams, from NASA, who ran in that year’s Boston Marathon.
PHOTO SOURCES: ESA Operations, Newsweek, Nova.org