Can any land-based animal outperform an elite human marathon runner over the full distance? If so, which ones?
鈥� Several land animals could beat a person over a marathon, including the husky, the camel, the (a creature similar to the antelope) and the ostrich.
Accurate or not, the is the inspiration for the modern-day marathon.He is supposed to have covered 240 kilometres over two days in order to reach Sparta and summon aid when the Persians landed at Marathon in Greece. Later, he ran 40 kilometres from Marathon to Athens and used his final breath to announce Greek victory.
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Some might argue that sending a messenger on horseback would have been more sensible. After all, a human has only ever beaten a horse twice in the 33 times that the has been run in the Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells. However, this race is run over 22 miles (35 kilometres) and not the 26 miles and 385 yards (just over 42 kilometres) of the full Olympic marathon distance.
It is likely that long-distance running echoes a hunting strategy our ancestors developed more than 2 million years ago. Our prowess over distance relies on our ability to avoid overheating, accomplished mainly through sweating and being hairless. like humans simply have to run faster than the slowest gallop of a prey animal until it collapses with heat stroke.
Horses are significantly better than people over about half the marathon distance, which is why they were used for the Pony Express mail service in the US before the telegraph was introduced in 1862. Horses were ridden quickly for about an hour between stations, an average distance of 24 kilometres, and the riders would change horse at each station.
Perhaps the Greeks used a runner and not a rider because a horse would not have coped with the heat of the late Greek summer and the mountainous terrain.
During the annual held in Alaska, the dogs pull the sled at around 24 kilometres per hour for up to 6 hours at a time.
At these speeds, if they were running a marathon, Alaskan huskies would cross the finish line in less than an hour and a half 鈥� at least half an hour faster than the human world record.
鈥淎laskan huskies would cross the marathon finishing line in less than an hour and a half鈥�
The pronghorn has evolved to outrun the grey wolf and can sustain 48 kilometres per hour for about an hour. The ostrich has long legs 鈥� composed mainly of tendons 鈥� that work almost like pogo sticks, storing and releasing elastic potential energy. The pronghorn and ostrich could probably run a marathon in 45 minutes.
Mike Follows, Willenhall, West Midlands, UK