Flashes of Panic

Yesterday I started a new book for review, and this evening I found this howler (well, in my eyes) at the start of the fifth chapter:

The saying goes that “every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest antelope, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or an antelope—when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

That’s a very well-known saying in running circles (it was adapted to a Nike ad campaign a few years back,) and here it is stated nonsensically. See, the lion doesn’t have to outrun the fastest antelope; any antelope will do, and the slowest is all he really needs to keep from starving. It’s only logical: if you’re faster than the fastest lion, you aren’t dinner. If you’re slower than the slowest antelope, you can’t catch dinner. In the overlap, you’re fed—or dead.

This misstatement is common (especially considering that the phrase is usually parrotted on team t-shirts or whatnot, not seriously considered.) This book must have been read at least three times in the production process, though. Why didn’t the copyeditor put at least five big red flags on that one?