The thing with a lot of animals is also that they're pretty dumb.

They could potentially out walk us, it's the most energy efficient way of moving, but what they actually do is run off when they see a human, then when they no longer see the human, they take a break. At which point the human catches up. At which point they run off again.

The human simply has to keep walking, while the animal keeps running off, rather than walking, ensuring the human never catches up, but without tiring itself too much.