To talk to this girl

[Oysterbabe]

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.

[Cloudspider]

I love this game too op. I have added challenges, chatting bloke and dog of doom. Chatting bloke I have to pass with just a good morning. Best days he already has a victim to talk at and I get 100 points. Bad days a short chat and no points for me. Dog of doom lives in a back to front house where the garden faces the road, he's a sneaky little fecker. I have to go stealth mode to pass with out him barking at me. He usually wins as can smell my perfum I assume. So I have upped the stakes and gone super stealth the wind was in my favour and as I passed said boo the look on his face 1000 points to me. I bet he gets me on Monday and laughs. I'm then always beaten by fast man in tight trousers but woman in silly shoes is no competition.

[Ninarina]

Oh and congrats on the baby!

[Shockers]

Ah... I loved this thread!

Congratulations on the occupant of that big pram OP!

[OneForTheDitch]

[JensenAcklesUndercrackers]

I race the neighbours on the school run, we don't get on so its even better when I beat them. Thought it was just me, relieved to hear I'm not alone in my craziness though

[Shannith]

My people. I do this too, with I would like to say quite professional horse racing commentary. On my walk to the tube in London I encorporated me (the horse) jumping the cracks in the pavement.

I also had a non secret race with someone who worked for me. We both got on the Nothan Line and had a choice to change onto either the Picadilly or Bakerloo lines.

I maintained the Picadilly route was faster. He disagreed. And so th daily racing began. FIr about a year. I still maintain I won more often than not. On many occasions we'd arrive at the same time and it would be a fight to get into prime position in the lift and out of the door first with the victor doing a winner dance.

We were both directors of the business.

When I got pregnant I started losing, so we agreed a new race of competitive Metro/ES crossword filling. ONe did one clue, passed the paper over, next person did the next clue and so on until my stop where we counted the scores and celebrated, called the other a loser with the actions and everything.

We were both in very professional jobs, suited and booted.

I was 35, he was 40.

IT has been mentioned to me before that I am quite competitive. No idea what they are talking about 😀

[biscuitbadger]

Once when I was swimming I secretly raced the man in the next lane. Except I got a bit carried away when I beat him on a length and might have said a triumphant 'ha!' by mistake. He looked unimpressed. I don't think he was playing.