Meet Tim Peake, the British astronaut who became the first man to complete a marathon in space

The London Marathon which was held yesterday saw an unlikely participation in the form of Tim Peake, the British astronaut who at the time was orbiting above the Earth on the International Space Station.

The 44-year-old spaceman saw London’s roads under his feet in real time on an iPad as miles below him, over 37,000 runners simultaneously took to the streets for Britain’s biggest mass participation race.

As if running the 26.2 mile distance while strapped to a treadmill aboard the International Space Station wasn’t enough, Peake also set a world(?) record for the fastest marathon in space.

The astronaut, who is on a six-month stint on the ISS, was also the official starter of the marathon and he sent the runners a good luck video message from the station in the 10-second countdown to the race that ended with “I hope to see you all at the finish line.”



While running in space, Peake was joined by two team members on the ground running in replica Russian space suits.

He finished the race at 3:35:21 which was several minutes behind his 1999 London Marathon time of 3:18:50 which he clocked on Earth, but it was enough to take the title of the fastest space marathon away from Sunita Williams, who incidentally was the first astronaut to run a marathon in space.

In 2007, Williams had posted a four hour, twenty-four minute run time in the Boston Marathon.

On the other hand, the race winner, Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, finished the marathon at 2:03:05, which was the second fastest time ever recorded.