You may have heard the claim that humans are the strongest animal when it comes to endurance running! Yes, even better then horses!
Well, turns out there's a fun sport I heard about today that puts this example claim to the test 😂
The horse marathon, where human runners are compete against riders on horseback, lmao.
The Man versus Horse Marathon is an annual race over 22 miles (35 km), where runners compete against riders on horseback through a mix of road, trail and mountainous terrain. The race, which is a shorter distance than an official marathon road race, takes place in the Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells every June.
There are similar events in other places too
There are other Man versus Horse races — in Scotland based at Dores, near Loch Ness, in Central North Island, New Zealand and in Prescott, Arizona
The first human vs horse race took place in 1980, after some rich fuck decided to put the whole humans are better long distance runners claim to the test:
The event started in 1980, when local landlord Gordon Green overheard a discussion between two men in his pub, the Neuadd Arms.[ One man suggested that over a significant distance across country, man was equal to any horse. Green decided that the challenge should be tested in full public view, and organised the first event.
So how did it go?
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Well, humans lost, lmao. And then they lost again. And again. Year after they year.
So to even the field they decided to allow cheating cyclists in 1985. And...
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They lost again 😂😂😂
It wasn't until 4 years later in 1989 when british cyclist Tim Gould managed to score the first human win by three minutes.
And it would take almost 3 decades, in 2004, for a human, Huw Lobby, to win the horses just with his feet. And his crappy shoes:
"The first thing that I will do with the money is buy myself some decent training shoes", he said after his victory 😂
Since then, human runners have achieved only 3 victories in 2004, 2007 and 2022.
I guess it could have been worse.. or better, if the distance was increased!
Here's a video from the 2022 race, definitely looks like something fun to participate
References