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back to article Brit 'naut Tim Peake will run the London Marathon – in space

Brit astronaut Tim Peake will participate in next year's London Marathon – albeit at an altitude of 400km and travelling at 28,800 km/h, relative to his fellow competitors. Tim Peake, Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra Peake, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, is scheduled to blast off …

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  1. Pen-y-gors

    Silly costume?

    Presumably they don't have any superwoman or bear costumes for him to wear during the run, as is traditional. Could he perhaps do it in full space-suit?

    4 0 Reply
    1. dotdavid
      Reply Icon

      Re: Silly costume?

      I guess technically he's "wearing" the ISS?

      1 0 Reply
  2. Yugguy

    He's got more mental strength than me

    I do 5-6 miles road running, three times a week, just to keep fit. I arrange my routes so they are a big circle and I don't have to run over the same ground more than once as I hate thinking "I've done this once but I'll have to do it again.

    I can't imagine staring at the same fixed point for several hours. Good luck to him.

    1 0 Reply
    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Re: He's got more mental strength than me

      I think the article said something like "I'll be running it with the iPad and watching myself running through the streets of London"

      Oh, hang on, it did say that!

      3 0 Reply
    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Re: He's got more mental strength than me

      I don't think there's any portholes near the treadmill, but he could hook his iPad up to one of the external cameras and just watch the view of the Earth turning below.

      That would keep me from getting bored for quite a while I think.

      0 0 Reply
  3. Egghead & Boffin

    I hope he remembers to add about 0.00000347 seconds (assuming a 3:30 'finish' time to allow for his orbital velocity causing time dilation to his clock, relative to those on earth, while he's taking part :-)

    8 0 Reply
  4. Spiracle

    A couple of questions spring to mind

    -Will it be possible for him to start dead on the gun?

    -Will he need to be debited a fraction of a second on account of frame dragging?

    (Edit: thanks for doing the maths Egghead)

    0 0 Reply
    1. RubberJohnny
      Reply Icon

      Start on the gun? Only the top elite guys get to do that. 99% have to shuffle forward for a few minutes before they even reach the start line.

      0 0 Reply
  5. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Where can I get these Raspberry cases???

    0 0 Reply
    1. RubberJohnny
      Reply Icon

      Those are milled aluminium spaceflight-ready cases and they cost a fortune for the few that were made.

      Some of the community have been imploring them to make a cheaper copy.

      0 0 Reply
  6. dotdavid

    "I'll be running it with the iPad and watching myself running through the streets of London whilst orbiting the Earth at 400km"

    I'm curious as to how this works. Hooked up to StreetView or something?

    0 0 Reply
    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Virtual marathon idea - patent pending

      There could be wearable cams distributed throughout the real crowd and your virtual run could "patch in" with which ever cam you are "at" on your treadmill run.

      With a bit of nice image blending you could get your own virtual view of the race, as it's happening, rather than what I presume would otherwise be bog standard Google Streetviews.

      "That is my [idea], it is mine and belongs to me, and I own it and what it is, too"

      0 0 Reply
      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
        Reply Icon

        Re: Virtual marathon idea - patent pending

        Hello Miss Elk! Long time, no see...

        0 0 Reply
      2. Vic
        Reply Icon

        Re: Virtual marathon idea - patent pending

        There could be wearable cams distributed throughout the real crowd and your virtual run could "patch in" with which ever cam you are "at" on your treadmill run.

        That's all very well, until the person wearing the camera you're plugged into suddenly has to stop for one of those Paula Radcliffe moments...

        Vic.

        0 0 Reply
  7. Sokolik
    Thumb Up

    Good on him!

    To run in that contraption? Something that annoys after only 40 minutes? Yet, to run about four hours? You're a better guy than I, Sky Sprinter. Good on ya!

    3 0 Reply
  8. Mark 85
    Devil

    Better turn the AC on high and ship the ISS additional air fresheners... although I imagine the ISS already smells like an old gym on a Friday night*.

    * Around these parts, the gyms are packed on Friday nights with every machine being used and people wandering around hitting on the people actually using the machines.

    0 0 Reply
  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    "...about 40 minutes, that gets very uncomfortable."

    Shouldn't be a problem, at that speed it'll only take him a shade over 5 seconds to do the full 26 miles.

    1 0 Reply
  10. fpx

    Good luck to him. Just a brief mention that Sunita Williams beat him to the accomplishment in 2007: http://www.space.com/3702-nasa-astronaut-completes-boston-marathon-space.html. Well, sort of. She ran the Boston Marathon, so it was on a completely different course.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Baldie
      Reply Icon

      The key difference is that Boston is a downhill course and as such is not eligible for world bests. London, though it is a bit downhill, is legal for the purpose. And at several thousand kms per hour he is going to be in with a shot. Though I think he may be disqualified for not actually starting in Greenwich.

      0 0 Reply

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