Which animals are an even match for humans in a race?

White tailed deer over a mountain half marathon.

Most animals would run off the course and get DQed. Only animals that are smart enough to be trained to follow the course are potential answers.

Gallapagos Tortoise over a 30,000 Day race

only smart animals wrote:

Most animals would run off the course and get DQed. Only animals that are smart enough to be trained to follow the course are potential answers.

To the assumptions, add that the animal is confined in a way that makes it go the right direction.

Clarifying this is like adding walls to make your rat mind go through the maze. Can you get the cheese? Go!

WhiteLines wrote:

Gallapagos Tortoise over a 30,000 Day race

Even a very slow human would need only 5000 days, less than 15 years, to put things out of reach for the tortoise.

4 legs are an unfair advantage. There is almost nothing we can outrun. Maybe a tree-dwelling sloth - but it still beats us in a tree.

Man vs horse at a marathon length (the race is actually just 35k)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon

It depends a great deal on the temperature. Humans are remarkably heat tolerant compared to most other mammals. The outcome of a man versus dog race over any non-sprinting distance would be massively different at 30 degrees F than at 80 degrees F.

It's actually Hippo. they run about 15 flat and most people can only reach that speed or less and don't have the endurance to even run 100 meters without slowing down. hilarity ensues as its an even match when hippos chase, maybe not if you consider they murder people with their teeth. if you mean healthy and fit humans then a chipmunk, squirrels are faster than people.

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Man vs horse at a marathon length (the race is actually just 35k)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon

This is the dumbest comparison ever. Slow horses over a bad course and undoubtedly with SPCA vet checks for the horses to ensure they don't break a sweat.

A person has no chance against a horse on a runnable course without borderline rock climbing or leg breaking terrain.

A good horse can cover over 20 miles in an hour and Arabians do 100 miles in under 8 hours.

These figures seem way off. Horses do sweat like humans, and their upright stance similarly saves energy. Wikipedia says 14-15 hours for 100 miles.

Compare apples to apples, though. Horses run these times assisted by humans. Horses eat grass (they don’t hunt for survival), a time-consuming food to ingest & digest. Horses don’t appear in some environments (humans are the most adaptable large animal, partly because of mobility); even when they do, they need human care.

Most of all, two legs is a disadvantage in a sprint but unstoppable over a long enough course. Humans are self-sufficient, omnivorous, but most of all have hands & can make & use tools. Humans can forage & eat & drink without stopping or even slowing down much; additionally we make portable containers for food & drink.

Humans are well aware of their advantage in nature & take care to practice & fabricate the necessary items in advance. Horses can make us work, but we would eventually wear them down.

What about kind of fish? Fish can't run on land so you would put the fish in water and make it swim and then get the human to run on land.http://teacher.scholastic.com/dolphin/about4.htm

We don't know how fast most dolphins swim but bottlenose dolphins typically swim at 3 to 7 miles per hour. They can go over 20 miles per hour when they work hard. The body shape of a dolphin helps it swim fast. A dolphin's body is shaped like a tube that is pointed at both ends.

I don't know how long it can keep up those speeds maybe not for very long. It probably depends on the dolphin.

ridiculous event wrote:

A person has no chance against a horse on a runnable course without borderline rock climbing or leg breaking terrain.

what about a man vs cow marathon? When they run the bulls in Pamplona, the bulls invariably overtake and trample the humans, but I bet there's a distance where they get tired and can't hang.

As for fish, I researched this long ago and found the vast majority of fish are very slow. Probably not many candidates to be exactly as fast as human.

Irrelevant. In a real race situation a horse is twice as fast as a human over any distance. And the horse caries a human too. Just to show off.

A very small dog is a good match. I used to race my family's small dogs on walks, and they were a good match.

Kipchoge ran his time "assisted by humans".

Watch a horse run 3 times as far at a faster pace.

Yea and the poor things have to carry an extra 120lbs

Capybara. Crocodile.

Over100 meters a Polar Bear , at 30klm per hour if you are a world class sprinter. And you find a slightly slower bear , with a big butt.