>> Station Commander Steve Swanson has something special
on his plan for this upcoming weekend.
He's part of a 6 person team that will compete
in the Wild West Relay Race this Friday and Saturday.
Covering the 200 miles from Fort Collins,
Colorado to Steamboat Springs.
Which is his hometown.
To find out how a person overcomes a difference
of 260 miles in elevation to run a relay race,
I am joined by another member of that relay team.
Astronaut Suni Williams who once ran the Boston Marathon while
serving on board the International Space Station.
Hi, Suni. Welcome, and thank you for joining us today.
>> Thanks, Amico [phonetic], it's good to be here.
>> It's great to have you.
So you are a 2 time resident
at this space station, expedition 1415.
And that is actually the one that you, back in 2007,
that you ran the Boston Marathon, correct?
>> That's correct, yeah.
>> Yeah, and then also again more recently,
the expedition 3233 mission, so we're very pleased
to have you here today.
>> It's great to be here like I said
and supporting our guys on orbit.
>> Great. So first of all, explain to me a little
about what this race is.
>> Yeah, we did actually pretty much the same team that's going
to run it this year, ran it about 5 years ago.
And what we do, we got together in Fort Collins the day before.
Got our plans set another.
And the race goes for about 200 miles, like you said.
From Fort Collins to Steamboat up and over a pass.
So it's a pretty rigorous run.
And not everybody runs their whole leg at once.
What we do is we have 6 people running 6 different times.
And so we do a relay race, one after another.
So you end up running 6 legs, so it makes it
about 30 miles for each person.
So that way everybody gets a little bit
in the daytime in the morning.
Everyone gets a little evening.
Everyone gets a little in the middle of the night.
And then that is all pretty much uphill to get over the pass.
And then the next day, as the night continues,
you're pretty much going down the pass
down from the hill to Steamboat.
So everybody gets about 6 legs, and to like I said,
add up to about 30 miles.
>> That sounds great.
So 30 miles.
At least it's not going to be here in Texas heat [laughter].
>> Thank God, yeah.
I was practicing while I've been back here in the United States
for the last couple weeks, and it's pretty hot here.
I've got my eyes in the sky.
Over there in Colorado,
they said the weather's a little bit cooler
and a little bit nicer.
But we do have the hills to contend with.
>> Okay, well, I want to talk about some of that too.
Let's first talk about, so has Swanson.
He's actually done this before, correct?
He's competed in this race?
>> Yeah, Steve's done it, I think 3 times.
We did it together once.
Like I said, I think it was like 5 years ago.
And the team that we had got together is pretty much all back
together with the exception of one switch out.
But everybody's ready to go and to support him
up in space with this event.
>> And so who is on the team?
>> So the captain is a guy named Brett Echelston [phonetic].
He's a long time friend of Swanny.
He lives in Fort Collins,
but I think that they met each other knew each other
from Steamboat.
Carrie, Steve's sister-in-law.
She's a really great runner, a lot of fun.
Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger who's an astronaut,
just recently left astronaut core.
But she's coming back for the race.
Also another guy, our new guy, Tim Flynn, he's joining in.
And then myself and, of course, Steve from on orbit.
>> Okay, sounds great.
Well it sounds like you guys are going to have a good time.
So tell me now because you're talking about the relay
and how you're going to go back and forth.
How exactly is that going to work?
How are you passing the baton
to Swanson who's on the Space Station?
Obviously, there's going to be some challenge.
>> Yeah, this is going to be a little bit tricky.
He's leg number 6, so we don't really have to think
about it for a little while.
I guess we're all good procrastinators.
We have 5 legs to get through before we have
to worry about it.
But in all seriousness, we're going to have a guy who's
like the relay point of contact.
Because if you can imagine the race route
that I'm telling you about,
doesn't always have good, calm connections.
So we'll have a point of contact that we'll be able to text
to keep up to date how everybody's running
and what their times are.
And so then that person can get a relay
through mission control up to Steve.
So get him ready to go and start the race of his run.
And then when we finishes, he just needs to make a call down.
And then that reverse communication stretch will go
back to our relay team.
And then the number 1 guy will start again.
So we'll do that a number of times.
I have one thing to add for the last run, though.
Not that we're going to not pay attention to Steve's time
because Steve's sometime is our official time.
But we have a bunch of folks who,
of course, he's from Steamboat.
So there's been a call out to all his family and friends to
and run the last leg with and for him.
They're all together, so we'll have a bunch of people running.
>> That's amazing.
And 30 miles?
>> Just the last of his leg.
>> Okay, the last part of that leg.
Wow, that's amazing.
That sounds like a good time.
So very interesting.
So you kind of talked about some of the hills
and so I do want to talk about that.
Because you did the Boston Marathon,
and there were some changes obviously terrain.
Tell me how it is running on the treadmill on the [inaudible].
>> So the treadmill doesn't have the ability
to change the terrain.
We don't have an inclination like some
of the treadmills here on Earth have.
We have the ability to speed it up,
and you also have the ability to add more resistance
on the equipment that you're wearing that's holding you
down to the treadmill.
So, luckily, we don't have to go uphill, but on the treadmill,
like I said, it does have its little problems or pains or.
You know, just like every run that you do, there's some parts
that get a little annoying
and this would probably be the harness
that Steve's going to wear.
And depending on how much weight quote unquote he chooses to run
with by using the bungee system.
So he can increase his resistance
on himself just to run.
And then he can also increase the speed.
Which I think will probably be the more accurate way
that he can make himself work a little bit harder
as though he's going
up the hills the speed is probably better.
>> Or he can make it easy and reduce that resistance.
[ Inaudible Conversation ]
>> Exactly [laughter].
>> Up the speed.
>> Yeah, when I ran the Boston Marathon on the treadmill,
my sister actually ran it at the same time on Earth.
And I was feeling a little bit bad
because that run also does have some hills.
And I didn't really have any hills.
I didn't have any bad weather up there so.
But, like I said, it has its own pains and problems running
on a treadmill first of all.
And secondly, tied
to the treadmill it's not absolutely fun.
>> Sure. Well, so I know
that you're a big proponent of fitness.
Can you just explain to me.
I know, obviously, it's very important to all
of our bodies here on Earth.
That explain why it's so important for you guys
when you're flying in space.
>> Yeah, so there's a lot of things
that space is wonderful, it's great.
You could fly around, you're like a bird.
You know, you're like a fish zooming around in there.
But that also has a toll on our physical bodies
for a number of different things.
Radiation, but also when it comes to physical fitness,
the reason we do physical fitness is
for maintaining bone density and muscle mass.
Because, of course you don't use your legs while you're
up in space, you don't have to walk around like you do here.
Which is an automatic load on your bones and your muscles.
And so up in space, the own lay way to simulate that is getting
on the treadmill or for cardio vascular on the bike.
Or we have the advance resistive exercise equipment
to do simulated weight lifting.
And that's how we are able to come back, essentially,
in normal shape and able to walk around when we get back here.
So in space, it's absolutely necessary every day to work
out because every moment that you're in space,
you're losing bone density and muscle mass.
You can't stop doing that because you're in microgravity.
So your body's not stimulated like it is here
on Earth with gravity.
So it's really important to do that up in space.
And I think one of the reasons like I did the marathon
and Swanny's interested in doing this race is because it taps
into another group of people on Earth for awareness of people
that are in space and what kind of research that we're doing.
That's going to potentially help us with combatting osteoporosis.
Because, essentially, that's what we have in space
and other types of problems that humans encounter here on Earth.
How can we help fix that while we're up there.
So that's part of the reason we're doing all
these experiments.
But also just to highlight physical fitness.
It's fun, it's interesting,
you can do it a bunch of different ways.
You know, getting out in the morning
and running isn't always fun.
But when you have a relay team that you're doing it with,
then it makes it a lot more fun motivating.
And it's a team effort.
>> Absolutely.
Well, I am very glad that you were able to come out.
It's greats to see you support Swanny as you are.
And best of luck to you and the team.
>> Thank you very much.
We're looking forward to it.
Really excited.
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