A WIN FOR SAMMY SNAIL IN THE G.A.S. AT THE A.O.G.

After resting yesterday, Sammy Snail decided that he would take part in the Green Apple Steeplechase, known as G.A.S. today, along with a couple of his friends, Siegfried and Sebastian.  They were allowed to practise beforehand, but couldn’t decide the best way to tackle this obstacle course.

Sammy wanted to just “go for it” without practising, to conserve his energy, whilst Siegfried and Sebastian said that they had to study form and work out a strategy and then practise.  The time of the actual race was drawing near, so Sammy said he needed to go and have another rest because he knew it would be a difficult climb up those slippery slopes.

The race started and from my vantage point in the stands, I could see that Sammy made a good start and managed to manoeuvre himself up the slippery apples.  Because he had drunk a lot last night and also just before the race, he produced enough slime to enable him to slither upwards whereas Siegfried was finding it much harder.  I heard Sammy shouting down to Siegfried, “You wouldn’t listen to me, but I told you that you needed to drink more - I’m a champion snail and I know about these things!”  As you can imagine, that did not go down too well with Siegfried, who considered himself a champion too, so I noticed that he took umbrage and decided that he would just slither back down and let Sammy and Sebastian fight it out at the top.

Meanwhile, Sebastian had slithered his way to the top and was just sitting there, getting his breath after that humungous climb, when he suddenly realised that Sammy was about to “pip him at the post”.  He was facing the wrong way, because he had been watching Sammy climbing up, which meant that Sammy was able to get up onto his back and was deemed to be the champion because he was higher than Sebastian.  Oh the ignominy for Sebastian!  I heard him muttering to himself, “Why did I just sit there?  What a fool I was!”  I could see that things were not happy at the top and I was right - before long, both of them tumbled down, but in a way, that didn’t matter, Sammy was the winner anyway!

I interviewed Sammy just before he went to the podium and he said that he knew the saying that “pride comes before a fall” but he was also aware that “slow and steady does it” was true too and he hoped that Sebastian had learned a valuable lesson today -“It’s fine to get to the top, but you need to finish the race!”

I imagine that there will be some harsh words in the dressing room later and I doubt whether Siegfried will hang around for long to listen to Sammy gloating!  So at the end of the G.A.S. in the A.O.G. Sammy is way out in front as far as points are concerned.  I just hope that he can keep his lead and stay focused on what he needs to do for the next event.

As I left, I could hear Sammy saying this to Sebastian:

“Pause and remember - 
     Slow and steady will get you 
          where you want to go. 
If you put too much pressure on yourself 
     for results too quickly, 
          you will quickly give up.”
Jennifer Young