Skip to footer

British astronaut plans to run the London marathon from space station

British astronaut Tim Peake plans to run the London marathon on a treadmill on the International Space Station next year, a feat that has only been accomplished once before.

|
Anthony Devlin/PA/AP/File
This is a Nov. 6, 2015 file photo of British astronaut Tim Peake. British astronaut Tim Peake will attempt to become the first man to run a marathon in space, as part of his 173-day mission to the International Space Station it was announced Friday Dec. 4, 2015. Peake will run a digital version of next year’s London Marathon on a treadmill as the ISS orbits the earth, at the same time as more than 37,000 people run in the race on the ground.
  • By Associated Press Associated Press

| London

A British astronaut will attempt to become the first man to run a marathon in space, as part of his 173-day mission to the International Space Station.

Tim Peake will run a digital version of next year's London Marathon on a treadmill as the ISS orbits the earth, at the same time as more than 37,000 people run in the race on the ground.

To combat weightlessness, Peake will wear a harness that tethers him to the treadmill as he runs. He will watch a video of the London course on a big screen in front of him.

"The London Marathon is a worldwide event," Peake said. "Let's take it out of this world."

The London Marathon is on April 24.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is the only person to have run a marathon in space. She ran on a treadmill in 1997 at the same time as the Boston Marathon.

Peake ran the London Marathon in 1999 in 3 hours, 18 minutes, 50 seconds. He said he is not expecting to beat that time next year because his medical team will be monitoring his preparations and run carefully to ensure he is at optimum fitness for his return from space eight weeks later.

"I don't think I'll be setting any personal bests," said Peake, who is hoping to finish in less than four hours.

Peake begins his mission on Dec. 15.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to British astronaut plans to run the London marathon from space station
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1204/British-astronaut-plans-to-run-the-London-marathon-from-space-station
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe