After more
than four hours of running in place, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams completed
the Boston Marathon while orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station
(ISS).
"Hooyah, I'm
done," Williams cheered as she passed the orbital finish line on the space
station's treadmill.
Williams,
41, began running the marathon at 10:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) as the race kicked
off in Boston and the ISS circled Earth at some 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers)
per hour.
"It's
coming up on 9.5 miles and it looks like we've gone around the world," Williams
said about 90 minutes into the 26.2-mile (42-kilometer) race. "So that's pretty
cool. A nice statistic."
At about
2:24 p.m. EDT (1824 GMT) she radioed to Mission Control that she'd completed
the race with an unofficial time of about four hours, 24 minutes, marking the
first time an entrant has competed from orbit.
A native of
Needham, Massachusetts, Williams
grew up in the Boston area and participated in Boston Marathon once before as a
teenager. She qualified for this year's race during the 2006 Houston Marathon
with a time of three hours, 29 minutes and 57 seconds. The Boston Athletic
Association issued her the bib number 14,000, which Williams taped to the front
of her treadmill, for Monday's event.
"I think
the idea came up because I'm a big proponent of physical fitness and I just
wanted to make kids aware that it is a necessary part of your life," Williams
told reporters last week during a video interview broadcast on NASA TV. "I
think if I could do something up here to show kids that it's fun and it's
important, than maybe somebody will get off the couch and start working out."
High and
dry
Unlike her
terrestrial counterparts, who braved strong winds and rain to complete the course
in Boston, Williams stayed high and dry. She ran a steady six-mile
(9.6-kilometer) per hour pace on a treadmill inside the outpost's Russian-built
Zvezda service module while orbiting about 210 miles (337 kilometers) above
Earth.
The
astronaut lauded Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot and Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva, who
won the Boston Marathon's Men and Women divisions, respectively. Cheruiyot
finished with a time of two hours, 14 minutes and 13 seconds, while Grigoryeva completed
the race in two hours, 29 minutes and 18 seconds, according to the Boston
Athletic Association.
"Incredible,
congratulations to all those folks," Williams said of the marathon winners. "[Those
were] pretty horrific conditions and those are some great times."
Williams
said that while she wouldn't experience some of the tougher parts of the
marathon's terrestrial course, such as Heartbreak Hill, running on the space
station's treadmill - known technically as the Treadmill Vibration Isolation
System (TVIS) - is no picnic either.
The exercise
equipment features a
bulky harness and bungee cords to hold weightless astronauts in place while
running, and can prove painful on the shoulders and hips during long treks, she
said before Monday's race. It has also experienced technical problems in the
past, but performed admirably during Williams' four-hour run.
"The thing
held out like a champ, no problems, no faults, no nothing," Williams said of
the station's treadmill, which has acted up in the past. "It's a great piece of
gear."
Boston
support
On Earth,
Williams' fellow NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg completed the Boston Marathon in three
hours, 32 minutes and nine seconds. Also running the race in Boston were
Williams' sister Dina Pandya, flight surgeon Steve Hart and long-time friend Ronnie
Harris.
Other
friends and supporters were expected to cheer Williams and her fellow marathon runners
from a vantage point between the race's Mile 14 and Mile 15 markers, signifying
the space
station's ongoing crew change between Expedition 14 and Expedition 15, the
astronaut has said. Williams joined the space station's Expedition 14 crew in December
2006, and will stay on for the first stage of the Expedition 15 mission.
Williams
ran the Boston Marathon as many of her fellow crewmembers slumbered aboard the
station, though Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Expedition 15
flight engineer Oleg Kotov prepared drink pouches and orange slices for her
during the race.
"She has my
undying respect," Lopez-Alegria said after Williams completed the marathon.
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