from Hacker News

Man versus Horse Marathon

by harporoeder on 8/11/24, 2:29 AM with 6 comments

• by teruakohatu on 8/11/24, 3:45 AM

  Indeed interesting, and it does not surprise me that a human can beat a animal carrying a heavy load (a human) in an endurance event given we are hairless sweaty mammals optimised for endurance rather than speed. Adding a proportional burden for humans (maybe 10kg) would give horses a huge advantage.

  It seems the race is also long-term optimised for humans to win. There are a lot more human competitors (> 10:1 ratio). The prize fund increased by 1000 pounds per year until a human won, no doubt attracting faster and faster athletes in increasing numbers.

  The course has also been varied making year on year comparisons difficult.

• by r-johnv on 8/12/24, 7:48 AM

  It also appears that the horses are given what appears to be a 15 minutes handicap under the guise of 'vet checks'. (Commentary is there under the history section of the article)

  I couldn't find more information on whether there are other things done to favor human over the house.

• by metadat on 8/11/24, 3:33 AM

  The results table really surprised me.

  Terrain can be tricky.