Mr. Kiprotich hails from Uganda and won gold in the men's marathon in the London Olympics in 2012. His time was 2:08:01. Wowzers.
Do you recognize the name Usain "Lightning" Bolt? Of course you do. He is the fastest human sprinter alive and here he is, being infinitely more exciting than Mr. Kiprotich:
As the fastest sprinter alive, Mr. Bolt averages speeds of 28 mph. A study by Southern Methodist University claims that human speeds of 34-40 miles per hour are biologically possible. I have a hard time wrapping my head around a human running at 40 miles an hour, but if science says so, I believe it will happen. Again, these paces are all over a short distance. I promise I will cover long distance in a later post, but for now, let's revel in the flashiness of sprinting!
So humans are pretty fast, but how do we compare to other animals in the sprinting category? The internet is chock full of top ten lists for the fastest animals, and they all seem to differ, except for acknowledging the cheetah as the fastest. Here is a chart from the Travel Almanac showing what they believe to be the fastest land animals and their top speeds.
| Animal | speed (mph) | speed (km/hr) | notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cheetah | 61 | 98 | On June 20, 2012, 11 year old Sarah the cheetah shattered the world record for the standing 100-meter dash, clocking a time of 5.95 seconds. That is an average of 38 miles per hour (61 km/hr). During the run it was radar-timed at a peak speed of 61 miles (98 kilometers) an hour. See a video. |
| 2. | Pronghorn antelope | 60 | 97 | |
| 3. | Lion | 50 | 80 | |
| 4. | Thomson's gazelle | 50 | 80 | |
| 5. | Wildebeest | 50 | 80 | |
| 6. | Springbok | 50 | 80 | |
| 7. | Quarter horse | 47.5 | 76 | |
| 8. | Cape hunting dog | 45 | 72 | |
| 9. | Elk | 45 | 72 | |
| 10. | Coyote | 43 | 69 |
The only ones on this list I didn't recognize are:
Springbok
Cape hunting dog
Springboks look like every other boring-as-hell-antelope-type-hoofed-mammal, but check out that Cape hunting dog! How have I not known about these magnificent creatures? A dingo clearly mated with a leopard.
I find it interesting that the cheetah and lion are so close in speed to their prey (those other boring antelope-type-things). The lion is the exact same speed while the cheetah is faster. However, the cheetah is smaller in size which, in my non-scientific opinion, I believe to be a bit of an equalizer. Evolution is amazing.
Side note: The coyote is number 10 reaching speeds of 43 miles per hour. As you can see, the roadrunner did not make the list.
I tried finding out why the creator of the cartoon chose a Greater Roadrunner as the nemesis of Wile E. Coyote, but my internet research turned up empty. Coyotes mainly eat small mammals like rats and prairie dogs, not Greater Roadrunners. Wouldn't it have made more scientific sense to have Wile E. Coyote chase Speedy Gonzalez? I love the roadrunner and all, but a show-down between Speedy Gonzalez and Wile E. Coyote would have been amazing. Before we move one, can we just take a moment to admire Wile E.'s hipster glasses?
So, humans don't rank at the top of the list in terms of fastest land animals, but we are definitely faster than some animals. Travel Almanac claims the following are the 5 slowest animals:
| Animal | speed (mph) | speed (km/hr) | notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | coral | 0 | 0 | Coral are animals, but they do not move. There are many other 'animals' that live a very stationary life, such as mussels and oysters |
| 2. | Garden snail | 0.03 | 0.048 | |
| 3. | Three-toed sloth | 0.15 | 0.24 | |
| 4. | Giant tortoise | 0.17 | 0.27 | the world's slowest reptile |
| 5. | Spider (Tegenearia atrica) | 1.17 | 1.88 |
Personally, I feel like including coral on the list is like including a lamp. Clearly, the writers felt similarly because they refused to capitalize the word coral but capitalized all the other animal names. To add insult to injury, they felt the need to declare that coral are indeed animals, but then in the next sentence, they incorrectly used single quotation marks around the word animal to describe coral and their other immobile friends. If the authors of the table can't take coral seriously, neither can I. Note to self: get better sources.
For some reason, being faster than what is essentially a mushroom of the sea doesn't do much for me, so I looked into some more mainstream animals to see how we compare. Apparently, domestic house cats can reach top speeds of 30 mph! That has to be a generalization because I can't imagine this guy moving faster than Usain Bolt.
Lastly, I found this awesome website that lets you plug in your height and then shows you how fast different animals would run if they were your height. Sadly, my average speed is closest to a 5'2'' African Bush Elephant. The worst part is that they technically don't run since they always have one foot on the ground. To qualify as running, you need to have an "aerial phase" where all feet are off the ground. This article on elephant movements states that elephants "'can't quite kick it into second gear, so they're stuck halfway in between' a walk and a run."
Well, at least they look cute.
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