Tim ran the London Marathon in 1999, finishing in 3:18.50.
By Dileep Thekkethil
European Space Agency’s astronaut Tim Peake has set a new “space record” by running the London marathon inside the International Space Station (ISS) realtime with his countrymen who ran 400 miles below in the earth.
Tim who ran the 42 Km marathon in a treadmill along with thousands of runners who took their positions back on earth, completed his run taking three hours and 35 minutes, breaking the record set by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who ran the Boston marathon from ISS back in 2007.
Tim latched himself on the treadmill and opened the London Marathon via a video message.
By running the 42 Km Marathon space, beating the record set by Sunita, Tim has set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon in orbit.
Tim ran the marathon along with his Team Astronaut members.
After completing the marathon Tim wrote on his Facebook wall “42 km while the International Space Station travelled almost 100000 km around Earth. Congratulations to everyone in the London Marathon and Team Astronaut…gonna sleep well tonight!”
In the meanwhile, the organizers of the London Marathon congratulated the astronaut for his successful run inside the ISS “Congratulations to ESA – European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake for running the #LondonMarathon in space today! Bungee cords required.”
In the meanwhile, Tim ran the London Marathon in 1999, finishing in 3:18.50.
Tim’s marathon run could also help to study the energy requirements of astronauts while on long-term missions and their cardiovascular performance, which are the two key areas of research on board ISS.
According to the European Space Agency, running in space requires elastic straps attached to the shoulders to stop from floating away in zero gravity.
“I have to wear a harness system that’s a bit similar to a rucksack. It has a waistbelt 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,” Tim told before his marathon run.
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