G.O.A.T. Marathon

OnionSoup went on a bit of a rant said
7

Today’s Greatest Of All Time is “marathon race”… Inspired by a discussion with @kidsandliz about overheated dogs.

Anyhow greatest Marathon takes place annually in Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales each year. At 22 miles long over rough hilly countryside you wouldn’t think this is the greatest marathon but it has a twist. Humans race against horses

Your first thought might be, "that’s ridiculous, humans can’t run as fast as a horse, " and you’d be right for short distances, but it turns out over marathon length distances human endurance and stamina is quite remarkable compared to many animals and even begins to rival horses.

The winner is usually a horse, but the gap isn’t usually as large as you might expect. A top horse athlete typically only beats the top human athletes by a few minutes and there have been two cases where humans have beat the horses… beat as in finished first not whipped them. The trick to humans beating the horse over long distance is it has to be hot weather. Humans have superior ability to cool down over horses. Colder and wetter the race the more the horses gap over humans become.

Of course, coming from Wales the origin story of the race involves a pub and two men arguing over whether humans or horses would win over a long distance run.