Random gripe.
I like to treat my playthrough as though time has meaning, and time spent waiting around doing nothing is time wasted. This is how I've always played any RPG or sandbox game of any merit. And it obviously goes double for a game where the main plot literally stipulates that you're on borrowed time.
So it does not sit well with me at all that every race involves a more or less arbitrary period of time your character just sits on a bench, waiting. Fortunately, the start times for each race aren't random, so what I've been doing is figuring out what time the race really starts, and then do my very best to arrive just before that time. Saving up to 23 hours of my character's life.