Chocobo Races

Okay so… is there some kind of trick to the chocobo races. So far the best time I’ve had is dead on 17 seconds. But it’s starting to wind me up, how the hell do I get to 0 seconds surely that’s not possible

Update: I’m now down to 6.2

Update 2: This is absolutely ridiculous. I went right to dodge a bird, it curved and hit me and then 3 more hit me at the same time