LOTR - At the end of the Chapter The White Rider in THE TWO TOWERS Legolas isspeaking to Gandalf about seein Shadowfax in the distance and says he is
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"a very great horse. I have not seen his like before."
"Nor will you again', said Gandalf. 'That is Shadowfax. He is the chief of the Mearas, lord of the horses, and even Theoden, King of Rohan, has never looked on a better.
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And earlier, in the chapter The Council of Elrond, Gandalf says of Shadowfax,
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"There is one among them might have been foaled in the morning of the world."
That is a reference to th earliest days in Valinor.
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Others agree. Here is some info from The Encyclopedia of Arda
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In the old north of Middle-earth lived a proud race of wild horses, long-lived, wise and fleet of foot. The legends of Men said that their ancestors had been brought from the West by Béma, their name for the Vala Oromë.
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Gimli is but one of many Dwarves with no particular blessings or abilities which would distinguish him from his bretheren. There is no foundation for ultra-marathon running in any account of the rest of the Dwarves in any of the books.
ANd one (hopefully last) other point. It is not my contention that nobody could run 45 miles each day for three days. Highly trained elite ultra marathoners , the elite of the elite, have done that. My contention is that an untrained Dwarf could not. Shadowfax, on the other hand, can run and run and run as Gandalf has said. He is the equal to those extra-highly trained ultra-marathoners.