Okay, I have a villager that makes snails look speedy. Is there any hope for her, it take her 20min to get a mushroom picked on the beach. Any sugguestions for Pokey? Is there any event that will move her along????

There IS a runner event,

These are villagers that dislike running. I know that certain events make villagers like running, but I've never had them on a villager who doesn't like running, so they might be your best bet.

I find that the best choice for slowbies (as I call them) are to use them for making babies (especially the women), and when you want to harvest slow and steady.

Other than that, there really isn't anything you can do about them (unless your slowbie is the villager that is chosen for that particular running contest event, should you actually get that event).

Have you checked their likes and dislikes? Unless it happened by an event. Anywho, these villagers aren't so handy but if you want something to be done slowly, for example farming, building, or researching, then you're at luck my friend! If it annoys you too much then you can hope for an event that will make your villager faster.

I've noticed that non-runners are good for research, because they don't have to move too far to be of use.

The non-runners will increase the challenge!!
I'm glad to tell you that the non-runner that I got in my games became Esteemed Elders, with Farming-Building-Research!! It took a lot of time but they succeeded and I proud of them!!!