During this year's Boston Marathon, one of the race's most notable participants won't be on the ground. Instead, she'll be 210 miles above the earth in the International Space Station gutting out one of the most grueling challenges sports has to offer.
Meet Suni Williams. She is a 41-year-old native of Massachusetts' who will be running the Boston Marathon in outer-space this month.
Williams, according to CNN.com, has been a part of the Expedition 14 crew since December 2006. She qualified for the Boston Marathon before she went into orbit when she ran the Houston Marathon in 3 hours, 29 minutes, 57 seconds. Rather than passing up the opportunity to run in the Boston Marathon -- the apex of most runners' careers -- Williams decided to kill two birds with one stone: Run on the job.
But the 26.2 miles Williams will cover in space while thousands race through Boston will be a far cry from the standard multitask. It'll be exhausting, uncomfortable and dangerous. According to Greek myth, the first person to ever run a marathon dropped dead after he completed the run.And though it would be unfair to compare this situation with that of a 41-year-old astronaut, we can at least get a sense of how bold of a challenge Williams is taking.
The runners in Boston April 16 will use water, good running sneakers and a PowerBar to help them complete the race. Williams will use a treadmill, bungee cords and a "vibration isolation system."
The bungee cords will keep her from floating off of the treadmill and the "vibration isolation system" -- designed by a NASA engineer -- will keep Williams' incessant pounding from disturbing the space station. The combination of the bungee cords and the isolation don't do much in the way of comfort, however. Williams has told family members the equipment she uses to run in space puts a strain on her shoulders and hips.
So why go through all the trouble of running in space when she could just stand still and cover 26.2 miles in less than six seconds? (The space station travels 17,500 mph.)
Aside from personal accomplishment, Williams wants to promote daily exercise among Americans. She thought running the distance of the marathon in outer space would be a good way to raise awareness about health and physical fitness.
Let's be honest, though. It is unlikely that anybody will start hitting the gym and changing his or her diet because a 41-year-old astronaut ran a marathon 200 miles above sea level. Instead, I think that Williams' feat finds its value in what it suggests about the direction of sport in the 21st century.
It is suggestive of the fact that the novelty of running 26 miles at one time has worn off. Her anticipated accomplishment suggests we need something new and fresh to keep athletic successes special.
And while I don't anticipate that Bud Selig is going to be making a push toward holding Major League Baseball games on the moon, I think that niche sports such as mountain climbing, skiing, snowboarding, running and biking will continue to push the limits.
If Williams' celestial marathon is any indication, sport and technological innovations will mesh in new ways to spawn achievements that simply sound absurd. Perhaps a year from now, we'll be reading about a scuba diver who will traverse the mid-ocean ridge.
Running the Boston Marathon may have lost its novelty (though it certainly retains its difficulty), and maybe sometime in the near future climbing Everest will too. It's unfortunate, but at the same time it's exciting -- imagination seems to be the only limit placed on what types of (ridiculous-sounding) achievements we can shoot for next.
In the meantime, however, look up into the sky and know that somewhere up there, Suni Williams -- equipped with bungee cords and a "vibration isolation system"-- is preparing for the run of her life.
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