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UK Astronaut Completes 60000 Mile London Marathon

Think using a marathon is a challenge? Spare a suspicion for British wanderer Tim Peake, who not usually ran this weekend’s 26.2 mile London Marathon, though he did a exhausting attainment strapped to a treadmill 250 miles above Earth.

ANALYSIS: Running in Space is a Punishing Challenge

Peake, a initial British ESA wanderer (and 7th British-born astronaut) to be launched into space, has been vital on house a International Space Station given Dec and had been formulation a marathon toil for some time.

“I’m utterly blissful that this is function after on in a goal so I’ve had copiousness of time to get used to a T2 treadmill,” Peake told BBC News shortly before Sunday’s event.

Located in a station’s Tranquility node, a hi-tech T1 treadmill has many similarities to a appliance during your gym, exclusive one impassioned upgrade. As a apparatus is operated in microgravity, to copy Earth sobriety (keeping astronauts in hit with a appurtenance while running), shoulder and waist-mounted elasticated harnesses safeguard there is adequate vigour make using possible.

NEWS: British Astronaut To Run London Marathon in Space

You might be meditative that Peake might have had an easier deal, what with a miss of gravity, compared with his London counterparts who had to understanding with 26.2 miles of 1-G, though consider again.

“One of a biggest hurdles is a strap system. Obviously, my bodyweight has to be resolutely trustworthy to a treadmill by this harness, and that can massage on a shoulders and around a waist,” he said.

The treadmill on a ISS isn’t there quite for party and a occasional marathon, however. An astronaut’s daily slight includes spending around 2 hours per day, each day, operative out. Lacking gravity, a tellurian physique deteriorates in many ways during long-duration spaceflight. To conduct a repairs caused by flesh atrophy and bone wastage, a severe training fast is worked into a crew’s routine.

ANALYSIS: Rover Champion: Opportunity Rolls a Martian Marathon

As a former officer in a British Army (and stream Army Reservist), Peake is no foreigner to putting in earthy effort. But on this occasion, he unequivocally went above and over a call of duty: He finished a London Marathon in 3 hours and 35 minutes. In 1999, he ran a marathon (on terra firma) in 3 hours 18 minutes, so he wasn’t distant from his prior record. To equivocate any medical or variable health issues that could impede his ISS mission, space hire medical group suggested him not to try to kick his prior best.

As an combined bonus, Peake also pennyless a universe record.

“His latest feat is certainly his biggest — using a fastest marathon in space, on a usually day-off from his exhausting report is illusory accomplishment,” said Guinness World Records’ Head of Records Marco Frigatti. “Tim is a loyal impulse and someone we can all demeanour adult to. Literally.”

ANALYSIS: So You’ve Run A Marathon. But Could You Run 100 Miles?

The prior space marathon record was hold by NASA wanderer Sunita Williams who ran a Boston Marathon on a ISS in 2007, completing a plea in 4 hours and 24 minutes. According to SPACE.com, Williams finished a 26 miles on a station’s strange treadmill that has given been jettisoned.

Interestingly, while Peake was using for those 3 hours and 35 minutes, a space station, that orbits a Earth during a speed of approximately 17,100 miles per hour, lonesome a stretch of over 60,000 miles. So nonetheless Peake finished a 26.2 miles on a space treadmill, a treadmill finished 60,000 miles! Now that’s an unusual marathon.

Watch a method of Peake’s record-breaking marathon:

Article source: http://news.discovery.com/space/uk-astronaut-completes-60000-mile-london-marathon-160425.htm