Stu, all true, but thats the TOTAL opposite of what your first post is saying!

Compare your times to your own times in similar traffic whilst putting safety first (ie what you are doing currently) and its a very safe hobby IMHO
But start trying to beat others on days with less traffic and potentially you set yourself an unobtainable target that you either give up trying to beat (i dont see you as someone who would enjoy "failure") or you take bigger and bigger risks trying to achieve it, and IME that can only have one outcome.