Tim Peake – the first bona fide British astronaut to visit the International Space Station – just became the second person to run a marathon in space. And his record-breaking time makes him the fastest extraterrestrial marathon runner ever.
The first ISS marathon was completed by U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams in 2007. Williams ran the Boston Marathon virtually, completing the 26.2-mile course in four hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds. Peake, who was tuning in live to the London Marathon, managed a time of three hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds, according to the European Space Agency.
That’s just a few minutes shy of the time he made when he ran the race on Earth in 1999, which is pretty impressive. Astronauts work out daily on the space station to fight the negative effects of low gravity, but they still lose muscle mass and strength. And although Peake didn’t have to deal with hills or terrain changes, he had to contend with a cumbersome harness.
“I have to wear a harness system that’s a bit similar to a rucksack,” Peake said in a statement before he headed to the space station in December. “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,” Peake said.
That’s right: Not only did Peake train for a marathon while performing myriad astronaut duties, but he managed to finish the race at the very low end of his goal time. That’s something to keep in mind the next time you want to beg off a trip to the gym.
Peake may have logged just over 26 miles on the treadmill, but when you factor in the space station’s orbit, he traveled over 60,000 miles during his race.
“Gonna sleep well tonight!” Peake wrote in a message to Earth.
