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

If someone is after you, they will never catch up with you, because even though they get closer and closer, when they reach a point which is just a little bit further behind you than their outstretched arm, they are suddenly running (driving/flying/swimming) at the same speed as you are, and don't get any closer.
Oh, and fish can all breathe out of water, and even get up on their back fins and slap you with their front.

And should you get a goldfish bowl on your head (which can happen all too easily) the fish will be able to swim through your head from ear to ear. It will be clearly visible in your eyeballs.

Before beginning to run really fast, you must leap into the air and make both legs (this applies to quadrupeds as well - no animal walks on more than two legs, except prowling bears - "two legs good, four legs well-nigh impossible" as Orwell might have said, if he had seen Tom and Jerry) rotate at blurring speed and then set off without actually making contact with the ground. Do not worry if some appendages - beards, hats, etc. - are left behind; they will generally catch up, often following collision with a tree. (At the speed at which cartoon characters travel when being chased, trees, houses, the chaser who has somehow outflanked the chased and appeared ahead of the victim, all apparently become invisible; this may be due to the curvature of space.)

When being chased by Droopy, it is impossible to outrun him. He will always be behind the next door you open. And he will say:
"Hello..."

Joe, Brother, or Bub.
Also don't forget about erasing the centerline of a highway and repainting it into a painted tree or cliff face or mat painting before a dead fall. The pursuing, or escaping, target of the gag, will continue to run along the new centerline where they will continue into the painted scene. The party which set up the trap will attempt to follow, only to have the gag sprung on themselves.

This is known as the "Sonic the Hedgehog Effect" by... well, maybe Sonic Team.

I think Chuck Jones pioneered it. That or Tex Avery. Anyway, it was WAY before Sonic the Hedgehog.

When attempting to follow you into a painted tunnel, the pursuer is more likely simply to run into a painted wall than to run off a cliff.