h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If an elephant doesn't qualify as a "runner"
because the legs on a given side move together,
does this mean that the few other animals that
move the same (camels and bears were given as
examples) are also disqualified?

I think that the definition of running should
not be so narrow that it disqualifies an animal
that moves quite amazingly fast (up to 25
miles an hour) given its size and weight.

Besides, who is to say that an elephant can't be trained
to adopt a different gait? Perhaps it could stand
on its hind legs and "run" on them. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained.

The other animals whose walking gait is like that of the elephant can actually run. It is not that the legs on one side move together that disqualifies elephants, but the inability to leave contact with the ground. Bears and camels are capable of a suspended phase. And the elephants fast gait has its own definition, the amble.

The definition of running used for this article is the accepted usual one, and it is acknowledged that a different definition, with a wider scope, may be used by speciallists such as scientists dealing with bio mechanics.

As for the training idea, I'm sure if it could be done, some circus trainer would have done it by now.

Or exercise physiologists like Ken Cooper,
who wrote all those aerobics books. I'm sure
that, at some point, when the elephant's
heartbeat reaches its maximum capacity,
the animal would be doing the equivalent of
running.

Surely there are many ways of achieving maximum heartrate without running. Swimming, cycling, gym workouts and sex can all have the same effect. And so can competitive speed walking.
The definition of running does not depend on the effort put in, nor does it require the animal to be travelling at its maximum speed. Indeed, I can run at a slower speed than my fastest walk.
This assertion that elephants cannot run is not to say that they cannot travel fast, or exert maximum energy doing so. It is simply that they cannot leave contact with the ground.
When charging, yes they are doing the elephant equivelent of running, but they are not actually running.

And all this time I assumed that the cockroaches traveling at the equivalent of 200 mph were running. Now I see that they were just ambling.