Chapter 5 - Fundamentals of Endurance Training in The Physiology of Physical TrainingThe endurance of the human body is remarkable—for instance, humans are more enduring in exposure to continuous loading than horses. Yiannis Kouros, an ultramarathon runner, completed 303 km a day, while Haile Gebrselassie completed a 42,195 m marathon distance at 20 km/h. In the Sydney Olympics, Gebrselassie ran the 10,000 m in 27:18.20; behind him was Paul Tergat 27:18.29, and Assefa Mezgebu at 27:19.75. Thus, the difference between first and third place was only 0.04%, indicating that there is only a slight difference between the best athletes, which raises the necessity of effective training.