The author omitted that humans are the best animals at throwing. Eg, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140225-human-vs-animal-who... . As such, the headline is an incorrect generalization of converting "humans are good at long-distance running" into "long-distance running is the only sport ability that humans are better at than other animals." No animal can throw a spear, or even a rock, more accurately than a human.…
The dogs can only outrun the human in arctic conditions, as the article mentions. In warmer weather the superior human cooling system wins longer term.
I objected to the handwaving numbers.
Handwaving #1: 42.2 km / (6.5 meters / second) = 1.8 hours for a marathon distance. The 2 hour marathon has not been broken. Hence, the 'sustain' here is for less than 2 hours, and not the day-long sled races that dogs can do
Handwaving #2: The text implies that a dog trotting speed is 'about 3.8 meters per second' then uses 'trot' for Huskies which, according to the link I gave, are able to 'average 10 to 14 miles per hour during the course of a day'. That is 6.25 meters per second, or almost as fast as elite runners, and for a longer time period.
Handwaving #3: Sled dogs can race far longer than 100km. The Iditarod is about 1,000 miles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_Sled_Dog_Race says "the exact measured distance of the race varies from year to year, but officially the northern route is 975 miles (1,569 km) long, and the southern route is 998 miles (1,606 km) long" and that the fastest time is 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, and 13 seconds and 8 or 9 days is not uncommon. That's about 180km/day, not the "up to 100km".
From http://www.iau-ultramarathon.org/images/file/March_2012_Worl... we see that the fastest human times, is over 10 days - truly impressive!, but significantly slower than sled dogs.
I just realized that 'special circumstances' is also human-centered. Humans also require appropriate climate to get those optimal speeds, and the Yiannis Kouros's 10 day record is on a road, not cross-country through snow like what the dogs run in. From the dog's point of view, humans need a special circumstances - climate and well-prepared track in order to reach their long-distance efforts.