Astronaut Tim Peake will run a virtual London Marathon on a treadmill on board the International Space Station, in tandem with the actual event on Earth this Sunday (24th April).

SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Peake, Astronaut running the London marathon in space (on what time he expects to record):

"I've been doing my longer runs at a steady seven-and-a-half miles per hour and I'm quite confident that I'll be able to keep that going for the whole 26.2 miles, so that's my intention - to do it somewhere between three-and-a-half to four hours. If I'm feeling really good then I'd like to break three-and-a-half hours, not so good and it might be a little over four but somewhere in that ballpark."

SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Peake, Astronaut running the London marathon in space:

"I'm very used to running up here now. I probably run with about 75 percent of my body weight and I've got a harness system here I can show you. This is what keeps me strapped to the treadmill when I run, and these chains connect to a bungie system and that keeps me on the treadmill and gives me the weight bearing that I need on my legs to stimulate those muscles - and to make sure that we don't lose too much muscle mass and that we don't lose too much bone density. It's the stimulation of running and weight training that actually prevents us from doing that. We do stay in pretty good shape up here now."