Next week, British astronaut Tim Peake, alongside Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, will launch into space from Kazakhstan, and they will live on board the International Space Station for six months. Peake revealed he plans to run the London Marathon in April, in space.
To be accepted into the space program, Peake beat out thousands of rivals and had to pass a myriad of technical, academic, and fitness tests. And Peake, as it happens, is no stranger to the London Marathon, he completed it back in 1999 and notched up an impressive 3:18.50. And astronauts regularly take to the treadmill while in space, running as much as two hours a day to keep fit and offset the effects of zero gravity.
“The thing I’m most looking forward to is that I can still interact with everybody down on Earth,” said Peake. “I have to wear a harness system that’s a bit similar to a rucksack. It has a waist belt and shoulder straps. That has to provide quite a bit of downforce to get my body onto the treadmill so after about 40 minutes, that gets very uncomfortable. I don’t think I’ll be setting any personal bests. I’ve set myself a goal of anywhere between 3:30 to 4 hours.”