A British astronaut wants to run the London Marathon while orbiting Earth

British Astronaut Tim Peake
(Image credit: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

British astronaut Tim Peake won't be in London for the city's marathon this April. But he'll still try and get in his 26.2 miles — aboard the International Space Station. Peake, who ran the 1999 London Marathon the usual way, announced that he'll try to repeat his feat from space while harnessed onto a treadmill setup, complete with a video of the course on a screen ahead of him.

"The London Marathon is a worldwide event," Peake said in a video posted Thursday. "Let's take it out of this world."

Peake won't be the first to take on a marathon from space. Back in 2007, U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams ran the Boston Marathon while in orbit, the Los Angeles Times reports. Julie Kliegman

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.