I’ve been walking the same route to work for about a year and inevitably see a lot of the same people every day. What they may or may not know is that I am secretly racing them. There is one girl in particular who is usually walking up my road as I leave the house. She’s pretty fast and sometimes she overtakes me and sometimes I stay ahead of her. We’ve never made eye contact or spoken but I feel sure that knows that we’re racing and I’m sure she purposely swishes her ponytail at me as she’s overtaking. She wears very cloppy shoes so I can usually hear her approaching from behind even when I have my headphones on.
I’m 23 weeks pregnant now and getting a bit slower as my hip has been giving me a bit of bother. She wins most days and this is just going to get worse. This morning I set off down the road and straightaway could hear clop clop clop so I upped the pace a bit, determined to at least beat her to the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill. It was going pretty well as her clops got a bit faster too but weren’t getting any louder so I thought I was holding her. Upped the pace a bit more to the point where I had a bit of a light sweat on and still no sign of her overtaking. Made it to the lights first (yes!) and risked a glance back over my shoulder and saw that no one was there. Was a bit puzzled by this until I started walking again, heard the clop clop clop and realised that my keys had been knocking against my phone in my bag when I walked and this was what I had been hearing.
While finishing my walk to work at a rather more leisurely pace I started thinking about how I’m probably slightly mad. Do other people secretly race to work? Would it be unreasonable if next time I smiled at my swishy haired opponent and maybe said good morning? Would this be breaking some kind of commuter grand prix rule? To be honest she doesn’t look very friendly but maybe she’s just focused on the race.
MNHQ have commented on this thread
AIBU?
To talk to this girl
Oysterbabe · 06/10/2015 12:09
Ohh I do this too, and in the swimming pool with the guys in the lanes beside me 
I race people all the time too, and use other people's mornings as time markers for mine.
Mostly I race people getting into their cars... I can usually get 4 children, bags, a pushchair and 3 scooters in before they have finished strapping in their second (of 2) children! I never share that I am racing with them in case I lose but the DC now know I'm doing it and have joined in 
my competitiveness was not the trait I most wished to pass on!
You are racing someone who doesn't know you are racing?
And this morning you raced your handbag?
I loved the line i feel sure she knows we are racing
I bet she has no clue at all! 
Oh Lindt that reminds me, when I worked at my previous place I used to cycle in and always pass a man coming the other way in the exact same place. We used to nod to each other. Every once in a while, maybe once every four months, I'd leave 10 minutes earlier so I could enjoy him looking sightly confused and panicked when he saw me on a different bit of the road and thought he was late.
You are mad. My son is too. He has races with people who are never aware they are in a race. Not just walking,..doing anything, shopping, packing, at the gym, Everything is a competition.
Its an illness..
I love this! You are mad as a box of frogs but bet it makes the walk more interesting
Surely someone must be able to write a book about this , I would read it , even though I have never raced
This thread has made my day. Genuinely.
The trick is you match your footsteps with theirs but then you extend your stride confuses the hell out of them and keeps you ahead.
I do a "coffee walk" which means instead of going for a coffee with another Mum we walk instead, saves us money and is healthier. We do it on the same day every week and there are a couple of dog walkers who walk together and they cut through a road meaning they start out behind us but end up in front of us.
I am so tempted to run when they cut through and end up in front of them so they wonder how flipping slow were we??? It makes me chortle. It is the small things.
I read somewhere about a man who was a long term smoker, he walked the same route to the train station every day. He gave up smoking because he over heard a wife tell her husband in their open doorway, "you are going to be late, the coughing man is here already"
This is brilliant! When I used to walk to work, I used to speed up to overtake other people and snigger inwardly thinking, "I can walk faster than you!"
I was also once convinced I had a stalker. I based this on the fact that I saw the same person at the same time in the same place every day. 
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I used to race the cars stuck in traffic. (felt like cheating on a bike sometimes). Also was very pleased when I overtook someone whilst walking to work pregnant.
I love a good race!!
I do this in the lab with my colleagues when we are performing the same procedure, they're onto me now so it's no longer an easy win for me anymore!!!
I have to admit to doing it in our local car park too, there are two barriers for entry and exit- if that's not an invitation to race I don't know what is. YANBU
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