During the annual 36th London Marathon on Sunday, British astronaut Tim Peake provided the countdown all the way from the International Space Station in lower Earth orbit and even managed to join the marathon back in London, virtually, as he ran simultaneously on a treadmill in microgravity.
Peake recorded a message from the orbiting space laboratory and wishing good luck to the competitors, as this was played on huge screens at the race before the runners sprinted off in London. Meanwhile in space, the astronaut began his own race, running onboard the ISS.
Eliud Kipchoge was declared winner of the 26.2 mile-race, who is also a long distance runner and is a native of Kenya. The runner finished in a record breaking time of two hours and three minutes and five seconds, which made him the champion of the prestigious race for twice in row. Meanwhile at the women's event, Jemima Sumgong won the race after two hours, 22 minutes and 58 seconds, who is also from Kenya, even if she suffered from a fall after 21 miles.
Back in 1999, Peake also broke records as he became the first British astronaut to compete from the European Space Agency, where he finished the course after three hours and 18 minutes, according to race organizers.
However, this race is very different from his last one as Peake is wearing a harness that is tethered to the space station's treadmill, as he embarks on a virtual reality video version of the London marathon, all in simulation.
The groundbreaking video has been designed to match the marathon as closely as possible, where it is densely populated with actual London Marathon runners in real time, indicated by avatars, where they are connected using the Run Social app during the race.
Peake finished in a new record of three hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds, where he became the second person to finish a marathon in space using a specialized treadmill. Also, he is the first astronaut to run the longest distance in space.
He announced in a blog posted yesterday, the run went better than expected. During the race, he ran negative splits and describing that his legs felt good during the most part, where his main challenge was dealing with a shoulder harness that forces body weight onto the treadmill in that zero gravity environment.
He says that when he finished 10 miles, his legs were feeling okay however, his shoulders began to hurt, so he quickly strategized to finish the race as sooner as planned. He was also watching the live coverage of the marathon during his own run, while drinking water to rehydrate from a pouch.