Sometimes we hear comments about the human race suggesting that, apart from our intellect, we’re nothing special. We don’t have the impressive physical attributes and abilities of other species. We can’t fly, like birds. We can’t change color, like chameleons. We don’t have shells, like turtles. We don’t have claws, horns, tusks, or even fur, like countless species. Yep, apart from our intellects, we’re nothing special.
Or are we?
In fact, we have good eyesight compared to most species (lousy sense of smell, though, and many birds have our vision beat). But even more impressive than that is our ability to run.
HERE’S AN INTERESTING STORY ON THAT.
Mankind was born to run. And like the energizer bunny, we just keep going . . . and going . . . and going.
Other species poop out long before we do. They may be better at sprinting than we are (think: lions and cheetahs and jaguars and zebras and just about everything else that preys or is preyed upon), but we are the ultimate endurance runners among terrestrial species. We just lope along mile after mile, and other species (more famed for being runners) can’t keep up with us.
The reason is the greater concentration of slow-twitch muscle fibers we have. You want fast-twitch fibers for sprinting, but slow-twitch fibers keep you going in the long run.
Dwarves, for example, are natural-born sprinters, having more fast-twitch fibers than men. But men have enough slow-twitch fibers to make them good distance runners. There are marathon men, but no marathon dwarves.
This is a cool factoid that I am just going to have to find a way to work into my upcoming review of [i]Chariots of Fire[/i]…