Williams puts her feet up after marathon

Fortunately for astronaut Sunita Williams, who ran the Boston Marathon in space today, it's easy to put your feet up when there's no gravity.

"I think I've put my legs up and haven't had to walk on them, so that's the biggest thing," she told Florida Today after her run. "They feel like they're recovering pretty quickly."

Williams ran the marathon on the International Space Station's treadmill in four hours, 24 minutes. She was aided by Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and cheered on by the rest of the two crews now in space.

Lopez-Alegria heads back to Earth in a Soyuz capsule Friday with short-time visitor Charles Simonyi and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

In space for nearly seven months, Lopez-Alegria said he's missed a long list of things one experiences through the senses.

"I would start with the sensation of lying down," he said, "the sensation of pasta al dente in my mouth, the sensation of my 7-year-old son hugging me."

The crew passes its free time by playing games with mission controllers. One is "movie of the week." The crew picks the flick, and they throw quotes back and forth. They also play a music trivia game that the science team controllers in Huntsville, Ala., are winning with just a few games left, Lopez-Alegria said.

After her run, Williams spoke with her sister, Dina Pandya, who ran the race in much nastier weather.

"She was drinking a cup of hot chocolate at a coffee shop in Boston, and I was sucking on a bag of hot cocoa up here when I called her," Williams said.

Williams' stay may be extended, given shuttle delays after hail damaged Atlantis' external tank, but as a Navy commander, she's used to changes in assignments. "I miss my dog a lot, but I think he won't actually realize the time more or less, so that'll be OK."

Williams later suggested to ABC News that she'd considered having her little terrier, Gorby, shipped up to her in bubble wrap, but that might not be such a good idea.

Mike L.A. and Suni answered more questions, some of which came from readers.

In response to sixth-graders' question at Riviera Elementary in Palm Bay, Lopez-Alegria said the crew can't see all the constellations in every orbit because half the Earth is in sunlight. However, as days shift over time, they do see all the celestial bodies, which appear more clear and even closer from space. The Milky Way looks like black dots on a white background instead of the other way around.

The crew stays abreast of solar activity and takes refuge in shielded parts of the station to avoid radiation when necessary, and did so in December, he said. "That doesn't happen very often."

Williams has high hopes for the Ares I vehicle, though it's not clear if she'll ever get to fly on it. "We've got big strides in front of us. We've got big shoes to fill from the guys in the past who have gone to the moon, and we have other places to go, on to Mars, and so we need to get that vehicle moving on."

What else is Lopez-Alegria missing? "I'm kind of looking forward to a good single malt scotch, and most of all, I'm really looking forward to seeing my son."

Preparations for the imminent Soyz departure are going well, Lopez-Alegria said. "We have a lot of things to bring home. As you can imagine, there's not much room to put it. So the idea of packing your car, where you lay everything out next to the trunk, if you try to see what shapes fit where, is analogous to what we're doing for the Soyuz preparation."

Williams said being in orbit for so long changes the way one sees Earth. "From here, we get some great vantage points of looking at how beautiful our planet is and how fragile it is. You know, the atmosphere, when you look out some of the windows that face perpendicular to the horizon, you can really see how thin the atmosphere is. You can see the glaciers changing as the seasons change, and it makes you really think about taking care of our planet."