Marathon in space

SPORTS: RUNNING RACES TRACK AND FIELD : SPACE EXPLORATION
Out in Space, Astronaut to Run Boston Marathon
March 31, 2007
IndyStar, By Jimmy Golen
Associated Press
* http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070331/NATIONWORLD/703310450/1012/NATIONWORLD
A shorter URL for the above link
BOSTON -- Zooming through low-Earth orbit at 17,500 mph, Suni Williams
completes the standard marathon distance every 5.4 seconds.
Williams is registered for next month's Boston Marathon, even though
she'll be stuck on the international space station when the rest of the
field lines up for the 111th edition of the race. So the U.S. Navy
commander will run the equivalent distance on a treadmill -- 210 miles
above Earth, and tethered to her track by bungee cords so she doesn't
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. "She said,
'I'll call you on Heartbreak Hill.' "
Another NASA astronaut, Karen Nyberg, will dodge the potholes from
Hopkinton to Boston's Back Bay on April 16 along with Pandya and almost
24,000 other runners. Although the race starts at 10 a.m. EDT on Earth,
Williams might not be able to run contemporaneously because her sleep
schedule -- a fairly arbitrary matter in space -- is set for the arrival
of a Soyuz mission.
"I'm not sure the timing will be that she'll be awake," Pandya said.
"They're going to be on Russian time, so they're kind of sleep-shifting."
Williams qualified for the Boston race by finishing last January's Houston
Marathon in 3 hours, 29 minutes, 57 seconds. Pandya didn't sweat the
logistics when she signed them both up, but on Dec. 9 Williams took off on
the space shuttle Discovery, and it became clear she wasn't going to make
it to the starting line.
category:wellness