Clam Evans wrote:
What kind of animal is going to chase you for a mile and not catch you?
A bear. Almost exactly as fast as a human.
Clam Evans wrote:
What kind of animal is going to chase you for a mile and not catch you?
A bear. Almost exactly as fast as a human.
Mitch Mitchum wrote:
Thank you. That is exactly how my thought had come about. What's so hard to believe about the possibility of a super gifted African hundreds of years ago that had to run away from predators. Or what about someone who had to chase after animals for food? If you spend the majority of your days running and hunting its obvious you could have unbelievable running capacity.
Its completely idiotic to think that a someone has ever been chased in a straight line for a mile by an animal...
1. Any animal that would chase a human would be able to catch them in less than 200 meters (probably more like 30 meters) even if he had a decent head start. Predatory animals or another large dangerous animal like a elephant/rhino would make Usain Bolt look like he was standing still.
2. If the human was hunting an animal, its still idiotic to think that he would run in a relatively straight line for a mile to try and catch it.
3. Running a sub 4 mile requires training. Just being an incredibly athletically gifted hunter who randomly runs a lot as part of his everyday lifestyle would not make you capable of running anything close to sub 4.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Clam Evans wrote:What kind of animal is going to chase you for a mile and not catch you?
A bear. Almost exactly as fast as a human.
Riiight. Bears are incredibly fast over a relatively short distance. A human would not get more than 50 meters even if he had a 50 meter head start.
James Parrott, 1770
'but maybe there was an amazing individual- Og- who ran 3:59 many thousands of years ago- and got eaten anyway.'
3:59? We really need Ventolin to run the figures to find what he could potentially have run
MobileRunner wrote:
Riiight. Bears are incredibly fast over a relatively short distance. A human would not get more than 50 meters even if he had a 50 meter head start.
Bears can sprint about 30mph, and of course over distance they're slower. 15mph for one mile, it's anyone's guess who would win.
If you weren't stupid you would have already known that.
Clam Evans wrote:
What kind of animal is going to chase you for a mile and not catch you?
A hippo actually runs about 15 miles per hour. It isn't so rare to be chased by one in Africa, or bitten and killed. I don't think they can last for four minutes though, or that any person would keep running in a straight line from one for that long. Imagine a pack of hungry dogs, chasing a man though. They catch up to him and bite him, but he keeps running. Actually he runs faster, because of the adrenaline. This could easily go on for four minutes, at 15 miles per hour, were he physically capable of it.
I doubt anyone broke 4 running from an animal. Either the animal was still faster and caught them before a mile(most likely) or the animal didn't have the endurance to run a mile and probably gave up before then.
4:02 recorded in downhill mile in 1863
My Garmin measured it at 0.96
Bad Wigins wrote:
MobileRunner wrote:Riiight. Bears are incredibly fast over a relatively short distance. A human would not get more than 50 meters even if he had a 50 meter head start.
Bears can sprint about 30mph, and of course over distance they're slower. 15mph for one mile, it's anyone's guess who would win.
If you weren't stupid you would have already known that.
Have you ever watched any animal related show on television? The vast majority of predator/prey encounters last only seconds. A predator as large as a bear would never pursue prey for even half a mile, it's not worth expending all that valuable energy.
Think about what you are saying. You need a predator willing to chase for 1 mile, a human capable of running sub 4, AND terrain/conditions suitable for a sub 4 mile.
The terrain/conditions might actually be the biggest barrier. Even if the course is downhill its not like the run would be taking place on a road. Have you ever tried to run through the woods off of a trail, or through an uneven field that hasn't been mowed?
Most predators can't sweat. They pant instead. Most would suffer heat exhaustion after a couple of minutes running flat out.
Just don't piss off a pronghorn, an ostrich or a pack of trained sled dogs.
I think there have been hundreds of thousands of people throughout history, maybe even millions, capable of breaking 4 with suitable incentive and training. But none of them did it before Roger Bannister.
How about being chased by another person or persons? Tribal hunters, seeing others from a rival clan set off in pursuit. Say this occurs in the Rift Valley or other flat, wide-open space.
Roger wrote:
Think about what you are saying. You need a predator willing to chase for 1 mile, a human capable of running sub 4, AND terrain/conditions suitable for a sub 4 mile.
The terrain/conditions might actually be the biggest barrier. Even if the course is downhill its not like the run would be taking place on a road. Have you ever tried to run through the woods off of a trail, or through an uneven field that hasn't been mowed?
I think the problem with this line of thinking is that it's extremely unlikely that the flight would have covered a mile of territory conducive to a four-minute mile. If the area was open and flat enough to allow that pace of running for that distance, I think the fleeing prey would be caught easily by the predator. If he's able to stay clear of the animal for four minutes straight, I'm sure there'd have to be a lot of dodging and ducking, twists and turns involved.This doesn't rule out the possibility that a trained hunter-gatherer from way back might have been able to run sub 4 if you put him on a track, but my guess is the fist sub 4 was Roger B in '54.
Mitch Mitchum wrote:
Thank you. That is exactly how my thought had come about. What's so hard to believe about the possibility of a super gifted African hundreds of years ago that had to run away from predators. Or what about someone who had to chase after animals for food? If you spend the majority of your days running and hunting its obvious you could have unbelievable running capacity.
Actually not a bad theory. Imagine some hunter-gatherer steals a bunch of food from a rival tribe while they're off on the hunt. They come back, see him, and take off. I can maybe see a sub-4 in those conditions, assuming they're running downhill.
It still seems pretty unlikely though.
Respect your four bears wrote:
http://m.guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/may/02/athletics.comment1James Parrott, 1770
Yes of course he did.
Maybe a dinosaur. We have no way of knowing how fast some of them could run.
Bad Wigins wrote:
Clam Evans wrote:What kind of animal is going to chase you for a mile and not catch you?
A bear. Almost exactly as fast as a human.
Not a Coach wrote:
My Garmin measured it at 0.96