Mcdougall doesn't present persistence hunting as a solved, sorted thing - he presents it as an explanation for the various adaptations humans have that other primates do not. That said, he presents it with extensive evidence and then goes on a persistence hunt (he fails). The evidence presented is far more compelling than the overview here - humans are the only animals that have diaphragms perpendicular to their direction of travel, for example, which means humans are the only animals whose respiration is independent of gait. Humans are also the only erect hunter which, combined with black, curly hair, makes humans the predators least susceptible to solar heat.

More than that, this article presents persistence hunting as something that nobody has ever observed when in fact it's readily observable. Its evidence that there's no possible way persistence hunting ever existed is spurious at best - a pit full of healthy animal bones simply means that the humans who filled it preferred healthy animals (as most predators who can pick and choose will). Persistence hunting actually fits this evidence better than ambush hunting - if the humans were lying in wait for whatever came around, wouldn't there be a stochastic blend of prey? However, a healthy prey specimen will go fastest, go the furthest, and achieve exhaustion faster as more energy is expended on flight. Better muscles, greater exhaustion.

Finally, the argument is that humans evolved as persistence hunters two million years ago. The counterargument that horses are better at persistence is only to be expected: horses are the result of five thousand years of selective breeding which is why "horse" is everything from a Shetland Pony to a Clydesdale. Horses two million years ago weren't exactly destriers.

I will freely admit that the long-limbed long-distance gods of Born to Run do not match my experience. As the guy at my local running shop put it, "humans may well have evolved to run down cheetahs but you and me, friend? We are ambushers of mastodons." But from an evolutionary standpoint, I am not shaped to ambush mastodons... I'm just a shitty persistence predator, as if the original intent and my modern adaptations have been at war for millions of years.