# Is it true that humans can outrun all other animals in the long run? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738 "2008-10-13T17:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/21 "2008-10-14T15:10:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > So why did people ride horses everywhere if it’s faster to run/walk? Horses can carry greater loads, including people, especially if you aren’t in a hurry? ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/22 "2008-10-14T15:22:02Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It’s hard as hell, obviously. Run any ultramarathons lately? > > ETA - and it’s certainly faster over shorter distances to ride. The discussion only comes into play over hundreds of miles of constant running. Not to mention you can carry a lot more on a horse. I imagine many of us are couch potatoes and aren’t used to chasing down our food on foot, or walking long distances. But if you were raised in a society to hunt and track on foot, you could. I tested myself once and I could walk about 4 miles before tiring. That was over a period of a couple of hours. If I was bound and determined, I could probably cover three times that distance, if not more, in a day. While I’m young and in reasonably good shape, I’ve never run marathons or anything. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/23 "2008-10-14T17:34:16Z")
I don’t think people have to run to chase down the animals, either. We can just walk them to death. Humam walking isn’t that fast, but we can keep it up for hours and hours. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/24 "2008-10-14T17:41:52Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > There’s a perhaps related statistic I heard, that overall humans have about 4 billion heartbeats in a lifetime whereas other animals are about 1 billion. The point would be that our metabolic rate multiplied by our lifespan is very unusually large. I guess that’s how we got to be the first to cause global warming. > > No cite, tho… That’s an interesting one. If we did have a fixed allocation of heartbeats though, wouldn’t athletes, or anyone whose heartbeat is raised regularly, die earlier than average? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/25 "2008-10-14T17:52:57Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > That’s an interesting one. If we did have a fixed allocation of heartbeats though, wouldn’t athletes, or anyone whose heartbeat is raised regularly, die earlier than average? Athletes, by training their heart by regular workouts during which their heart is indeed beating faster, train it to beat slower at other times, at least if not more than cancelling the temporary heart racing of the training out. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/26 "2008-10-14T18:20:21Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Athletes, by training their heart by regular workouts during which their heart is indeed beating faster, train it to beat slower at other times, at least if not more than cancelling the temporary heart racing of the training out. Hmmm…you’d think people with meditative skills which enabled them to slow down their heartbeat would live longer than average then, wouldn’t you? Is there any truth to that? ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/27 "2008-10-14T18:34:22Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > So why did people ride horses everywhere if it’s faster to run/walk? Kwai Chang Caine walked everywhere, never rode.😃 ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/28 "2008-10-14T18:37:43Z")
> [@Lanzy](#): > > Kwai Chang Caine walked everywhere, never rode.😃 Aye, but he only carried a flute. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/29 "2008-10-14T18:49:28Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > That’s an interesting one. If we did have a fixed allocation of heartbeats though, wouldn’t athletes, or anyone whose heartbeat is raised regularly, die earlier than average? As I understand it, the heartbeat thing is just an easy to measure indicator that we live much longer than other species do for our metabolic rate. In other words, most animals in a sense live about as long as each other; some just “live faster” than others. A tortoise in this sense just lives slower than a dog, not longer. Humans are an exception; we live something like 2-3 times what an animal of our metabolic rate “should”. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/30 "2008-10-14T19:03:56Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > So why did people ride horses everywhere if it’s faster to run/walk? Didn’t you ever hear the one ‘bout the Runnin’ Cowboy? ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/31 "2008-10-14T21:14:50Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > There’s a perhaps related statistic I heard, that overall humans have about 4 billion heartbeats in a lifetime whereas other animals are about 1 billion. The point would be that our metabolic rate multiplied by our lifespan is very unusually large. I guess that’s how we got to be the first to cause global warming. > > No cite, tho… [A cite](http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/longevity.htm). Though the human value is closer to 2 billion. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/32 "2008-10-14T21:30:51Z")
> [@Mr.Frink](#): > > \*\*This American Life \*\*did an interesting piece on author Scott Carrier’s 12 year quest to chase down an antelope. The show is called “[Running after Antelope](http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=80)” (available streaming) And Scott Carrier is brother of David Carrier, mentioned in the _Discover_ article. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/33 "2008-10-14T21:37:43Z")
> [@Darwins\_Finch](#): > > [A cite](http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/longevity.htm). Though the human value is closer to 2 billion. So, based on that metric, the only thing that comes close to beating us in a long distance race is. . . the chicken. . . I never saw that one coming. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/34 "2008-10-14T22:46:35Z")
> [@Darwins\_Finch](#): > > [A cite](http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/longevity.htm). Though the human value is closer to 2 billion. That’s based on average lifespan (70-some years for a human). The figures in the Asimov essay were based on the absolute outlier maximum lifespan for various species, or a hundred and something-teen for humans. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/35 "2008-10-14T23:19:59Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > I’m with you there! It’s also a good thing we live and work in groups so somebody else can be on the other side of the prey, and we can corner it. Can’t overestimate the utility of +4 flanking privilege. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738/36 "2008-10-15T03:35:59Z")
Yeah, plus you get guaranteed attacks of opportunity if it tries to run away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-humans-can-outrun-all-other-animals-in-the-long-run/467738.md?page=1)