‘Look at me!’ said the Hare to the other animals. ‘Just look how fast I can run.’ The Hare ran across a field as fast as he could. All the animals agreed that yes the Hare was very fast. The Hare ran back.

‘See,’ he shouted. ‘I’m not even out of breath.’ ‘Yeah, that was fast,’ said a Fox. ‘So who wants a race?’ said the Hare. ‘Anybody think they could beat me?’ None of the animals spoke. 

‘See,’ said the Hare. ‘You’re all too scared to even try.’ ‘I’ll have a go,’ said the Tortoise. The Hare laughed. ‘You? The slowest creature in the whole world? I’m not wasting my time racing a Tortoise.’

‘What’s the matter?’ said the Tortoise. ‘Scared I might beat you?’ Some of the animals laughed at that so the Hare said, ‘Alright then, Tortoise. Let’s have a race...right now...then we’ll see who’s laughing.’ ‘Not today,’ said the Tortoise. ‘We’ll race next week. Got to do a bit of training first.’

Next morning the animals watched the Tortoise do his ‘training’. First he did some gentle stretching exercises to warm himself up... ...and then he started to run. ‘Has he started running yet?’ asked the Fox. ‘Hard to tell with Tortoises,’ said the Badger. ‘He’s definitely moving.’ ‘Is he?’ said the Fox. ‘Tortoise, are you sure about this?’ said the Crow. ‘I mean the Hare IS very fast and you…well…’‘Don’t worry,’ said the Tortoise. ‘This is just day one. I’ll speed up. You’ll see.

On the day of the race crowds of animals came to watch. The Tortoise slowly made his way to the starting line and then suddenly... ...the Hare arrived at top speed wearing a brand new track suit and four expensive-looking trainers. ‘The race starts here.’ said the Fox pointing to a line on the ground. ‘And ends at that tree on the other side of the field. First one to touch the tree is the winner.’