Bolt Verses Kitty

From Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt Verses a House Cat
Cameron Stratcher (The Wall Street Journal)

Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who shattered two world records last week may now be the world's fastest human, but his accomplishments raise some intriguing questions about how he and other humans match up against the rest of the animal kingdom.

At top speed, Bolt hit about 48kph as he set his record (he averaged 38kph over 100 meters). The cheetah, in contrast, can reach a top speed of 113kph and maintain it for about 183 to 274 meters. ...The pronghorn can run at about 105kph. The wildebeest, lion and gazelle can all run at about 80kph...And so, among land animals, Bolt's record-setting runs probably place him around 30th on the list of the fastest, behind the while tail deer, warthog, grizzly bear, and house cat (which can reach speeds of about 48kph).

And yet there are very few animals that could beat a man in a marathon or longer distance race. Haile Gebrelassie, the Ethiopian distance runner who holds the world record in the marathon, averages about 19kph. True, in the Iditarod sled race, Siberian huskies match or beat that pace, and maintain it for up to six hours a day, 11 days in a row. And the Arabian horse has run 97km at a pace of 26kph, while the fastest human runs just under 16kph at that distance. But other than those two, there probably isn't another land animal in the world that could beat the current world record in the marathon of 2:03:59.

...Animals run because they have to- to eat or avoid being eaten. Man is the only animal that runs simply to do it. Our large brains can persuade our frail bodies to keep moving regardless of cost.

[I'm hoping my large brain will push my frail body to keep moving for 42.2km at 11.8kph..... whether at Singapore in 99 days time or at a later marathon...]