She ran on the treadmill with a harness fastened around her waist and shoulders. "If you were just on the treadmill without a harness
yoU'd float away."
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To simulate the upper-body workout triathletes experienced during the event’s half-mile swim portion, Williams used the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device — or ARED. The apparatus uses vacuum cylin- ders to simulate free weights. Astronauts use the equipment regularly to maintain bone and muscle strength.
“In space, you lose muscle mass and bone density instantaneously every day because we’re not under the influence of gravity,” Williams said. “We definitely need some type of loading on those parts of our body.”
While many triathletes cite swimming as their least favorite of the sport’s three events, working out on the ARED isn’t much easier, Williams says.
“Microgravity is nice to your body,” she
said. “You can float around and it feels good, but when you simulate gravity on the treadmill or the ARED, it sort of hurts.” Weightlessness might have some advan- tages, such as being able to propel your body from one area of the space station to another with a slight touch of a finger, but exercising while in space is critical, Williams says.
“Some astronauts suffer back pain from spine stretching during weightlessness,” she said. Working in the restrictive space- suit needed for spacewalks can be exhaus- tive. “That’s why we work out pretty much every day while we’re on the space station to make sure we’re physically ready to for the spacewalk.”
Williams, who was born in Ohio and grew up in Needham, Mass., has been
40 USA TRIATHLON WINTER 2013
physically active for most of her life. The fact that she continues to exercise and compete in races while in space is just an extension of her upbringing. “She is very conscious about her health,” her father said. “She’s very me- thodical to maintain her physical fitness. We are proud of her.”
It was Williams’ parents who helped instill her love of sports and competing early in her life. She began swimming with her sister and brother at age 5. “It’s amazing,” Dina said. “Our parents would drive us to swimming practice in the morning and night every day. A lot of the athletic activities started when we were younger. We were doing that all the time. I think that was a big reason why she’s still competitive and still keeping up with all of that stuff today.”
The two sisters also ran the 2007 Boston Marathon together. However, Williams was on her first space mission at the time, lead- ing her to become the first astronaut to complete the race while in orbit. Her sister ran it on earth. Williams qualified for the exclusive marathon with a time of 3:29:57 at the 2006 Houston Marathon. “At the last minute, she gave me her Houston Marathon card and said ‘sign me up,’” Dina recalled. “We knew she was going to be in space, but we ended up signing her up. She did the whole thing. She started when we started, so she had to wake up at 4 in the morning.”
Williams finished her space marathon in 4:20:42 and is listed in the Boston Mara- thon’s official results. A year later, she ran
it in 3:49:49 on earth.
As for her latest race in space, once Williams had completed the triathlon’s simulated swim leg, she grabbed her No. 83 race number off of the ARED and floated over to a nearby stationary bike in the station’s lab area for the 18-mile ride. With her shoes already clipped into the bike’s pedals, Williams quickly began churning her legs. To make her race as accurate as possible to the actual Malibu event, a computer simulated the course’s hills. Williams wasn’t without her share of problems. About one minute into the ride, her right foot slipped out of the pedal as other astronauts floated past her. Less than two minutes after starting the bike por- tion, Williams had to roll up the sleeves on her grey T-shirt to try to keep cool. By the time she reached the treadmill, her shirt was dark with sweat. She ran on the treadmill for four miles while strapped to the device with a harness fastened around her waist and shoulders. “If you were just on the treadmill with-
out a harness you’d float away,” she says. After finishing, Williams looked at her watch to see her time of 1:48:43. “I’m happy to be done,” she said after the race. “It wasn’t easy.”
A few days after making history as the first space triathlete, Williams spoke with her sister and summed up the experience a bit more honestly.
“She said ‘that kicked my butt,’” Dina said. “She worked really hard like she always does. She’s not lazy, that’s for sure.”