Space station marathon

A couple of recent items on television are of interest, one because I am somewhat flustered and the other because it is so neat.

First, a peeve. There was a short item on local San Antonio television suggesting that many of us are overdoing it in terms of exercise. “Do you exercise for an hour or more?” was one of the issues raised. The segment also asked whether you feel a compulsion to exercise, going on to suggest that these issues are indicators of being “addicted” to exercise.

Surely, the issues are much more complex than that, and to suggest that many of us with fitness goals are overdoing it is misleading and, I’m afraid, feeds the epidemic of avoiding exercise. We need to realize that certain goals can’t be accomplished on 30 minutes a day, several days per week. And it’s definitely not a disease to aspire to a high degree of fitness. I’m not saying there is no over-exercise abuse. We all see it. But let’s not cast aspersions upon those who are out there running, jumping, biking, swimming and walking five or six days per week. For the most part these athletes should be our role models.

OK. I’ll step off the soap box now while I encourage you to click on the following links to learn about the marathon which astronaut Sunita Williams ran at the International Space Station as an official participant in the Boston Marathon. At least she had some good weather as she averaged just under 6 mph while the Space Station rushed through space at 5 miles per second!

NASA press release

Boston Marathon run in space station