Sunita “Suni” Williams (pronounced SUN-ny) accomplished
a first-ever feat: she completed a Boston Marathon while
210 miles
above Earth in the International Space Station..
Cape Canaveral, FLORIDA – Nothing was going to stop Sunita
Williams from running in the famous 26-mile
Boston
Marathon, not even being 210 miles above Earth.
Strapped to a treadmill so she wouldn’t float away in zero
gravity, Williams, 41, ran the entire race aboard the
International Space Station (ISS) on April 16.
While her Earth-bound racing opponents ran 26.2 miles,
Williams ran the same amount of miles while circling
Earth almost three times at 5 miles per second.
Why, you ask?
“I would like to encourage kids to start
making physical fitness a part of their daily lives. I thought
a big goal like a marathon would help get this message out
there,” Williams said.
Williams trained on board the space station for months.
In space, astronauts must exercise regularly to keep their
bones and muscles strong.
“In microgravity, muscle and bone strength start to go away
because we don’t use our legs to walk around and don’t need
the bones and muscles to hold us up under the force of
gravity,” Williams said.
During her run, Williams watched two
computer terminals.
One showed the
race in Massachusetts. She watched
her
sister run along the streets of
Boston. The other showed 
where the ISS was above Earth.
Two Russian cosmonauts (astronauts)
and a space tourist
are also on board
the space station. Williams’ crew,
Expedition 14, is packing for a return trip in June on a
Russian Soyuz capsule
after its six-month flight.
See the video at: www.rnrk.com/weblinks.html !
While running the Boston Marathon
in the space station, Suni Williams
traveled at 17,500 mph.
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