British astronaut Tim Peake became the first man and second person to finish a marathon in space on Sunday.
Peake completed the 26.2-mile London Marathon in orbit about 200 miles above Earth at the International Space Station. He ran an estimated time of 3:35.21, according to a tweet from the European Space Agency.
“It probably looked like I was having a strong run at the end, but the reality was that I couldn’t wait to get out of the harness!!” Peake said in a blog post Monday.
.@astro_timpeake has finished his #LondonMarathon in space! Estimated time 3:35:21. @Astro_Jeff comes to applaud Tim pic.twitter.com/0AT4EgRUNK
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) April 24, 2016
Peak explained in the post the harness used on the space station started to hurt his shoulders, so he ran at a faster pace.
“My legs paid the price, but my shoulders were grateful,” Peake said.
Peake opened the London Marathon with a video message.
.@astro_timpeake starts his #londonmarathon all the way from space!https://t.co/29UKkcAoeU
— BBC Get Inspired (@bbcgetinspired) April 24, 2016
“It’s a huge honor to be asked to be the official starter of the 2016 London Marathon,” Peake said before the start of the race. “I'm really excited to be able to join the runners on earth from right here on board the space station. Good luck to everybody running, and I hope to see you all at the finish line.”
Peake said he opted to watch BBC coverage of the event while running the marathon instead of watching the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” or listening to his #Spacerocks playlist.
“It was extremely motivating watching the live coverage of the event and hearing the stories of some of the 33,000 people taking part,” Peake said.
The RunSocial app also gave Peake a view of the streets of London as he would see them if he were running the marathon on Earth.
“It was an incredible experience to take part in such a prestigious event whilst orbiting the planet on the International Space Station and I'm hugely grateful to everyone at the European Space Agency and NASA who made that happen,” Peake said.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams ran the Boston Marathon with a time of 4:23:10 from the International Space Station in 2007.
Hello #London! Fancy a run? :) #LondonMarathon https://t.co/CvaUjUo7IU pic.twitter.com/SLckqOp8Gk
— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) April 24, 2016
