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Journalism of Courage
Zooming through low-Earth orbit at 17,500 mph, Sunita Williams completes the standard marathon distance every 5.4 seconds. But for next month’s Boston Marathon, the US Navy commander will run the equivalent distance on a treadmill — 338 kilometres above Earth in the international space station, and tethered to her track by bungee cords so she does not float away.
“She thought it would be cool if she gave it a try,” said Williams’ sister, Dina Pandya, who will run the race the traditional way with almost 24,000 other runners. “She said, ‘I’ll call you on Heartbreak Hill.”
Williams, 41, qualified for the Boston race by finishing last January’s Houston Marathon in 3 hours, 29 minutes, 57 seconds. On December 9, Williams took off on the space shuttle Discovery and it became clear she was not going to make it to the starting line.
“I considered it a huge honour to qualify, and I didn’t want my qualification to expire without giving it a shot,” Williams told the Boston Athletic Association, which organises the race.
Exercise is essential in NASA’s efforts to counteract the effects of long-duration weightlessness on astronauts’ health. For months, Sunita has been training for the marathon while aboard the station. She runs at least four times a week, two longer runs and two shorter runs. Station crews are required to exercise on the treadmill, a stationary bike and a resistive exercise machine to counter loss of bone density and muscle mass.
Due to the crew’s sleep schedule, Sunita’s run of the marathon on the station may not coincide exactly with the race on the ground, but mission control is working to match the events as closely as possible.
