Why are snails and slugs so slow?

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Wander through your garden, or walk along a stream, and it's likely you'll see a snail - small, squishy animals with shells on their backs. You may also encounter slugs, which are slow-moving animals related to snails. They look alike except that slugs don't have shells. One thing they all have in common, though, is that they move slowly. Here's an example of just how slow they are: the World Snail Racing Championships, held in the UK, pits the quickest snails against one another in a "foot race". The fastest snail on record sped through the course at a blazing 0.06 miles per hour. Or to look at it another way, if you were that slow, it would take you about three minutes to get a bite of food from your plate to your mouth.

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