When the London Marathon begins on April 24, one Briton will be joining the race from afar.

Tim Peake will run the marathon from space, and is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on Dec. 15. According to The Associated Press, part of Peake's 173-day mission will include running the London Marathon aboard the ISS while the runners take part on the ground.

Peake will be tethered to a treadmill in order to combat the weightlessness aboard the ISS and will also be able to track his progress on a monitor in front of him. Peake is not the first ISS crewmember to run a marathon in space, but he is the first British astronaut the European Space Agency (ESA) will send to the ISS, The English Standard reported.

"As soon as I got assigned to my mission to the International Space Station, I thought wouldn't it be great to run the Digital Virgin Money London Marathon from onboard the ISS," Peake said in a press release. "The London Marathon is a worldwide event. Let's take it out of this world.

"The thing I'm most looking forward to is that I can still interact with everybody down on Earth. I'll be running it with the iPad and watching myself running through the streets of London whilst orbiting the Earth at 400km above the surface and going 27,000km per hour."

His run is aimed at raising awareness for The Prince's Trust charity. Peake completed the London Maraton in 1999 in three hours and 18 minutes, though he is not expecting to top that time. He does, however, have a goal in mind.

"One of the biggest challenges I'll be facing is the harness system. In microgravity I would float if I didn't strap myself down to the treadmill so I have to wear a harness system that's a bit similar to a rucksack," he said. "It has a waistbelt and shoulder straps. That has to provide quite a bit of downforce to get my body onto the treadmill so after about 40 minutes, that gets very uncomfortable. I don't think I'll be setting any personal bests. I've set myself a goal of anywhere between 3:30 to 4 hours."