It’s been a thing online since at least 1997-2000, because that’s when I first was coming across it when I was younger, so I’m willing to bet it’s been around since the dawn of the internet.
“Shipping” has been used in so much mainstream media as well, I’m surprised it wasn’t a more recognized term.
It was never about our speed, it was about our endurance and persistence. There’s no point in history where we were the fastest creature in the local food chain, a deer or Buffalo was going to sprint faster than us, but when they had to stop to cool off or recover from the fast burn of energy, we were right there, right behind them, still coming.