I have just received a message from the word "surge", who feels he is being vastly overworked. (He has a cubicle in the London offices of the Oxford English Dictionary.) He notes that there are many interesting ways to convey a similar impression. Here are just a few:
Overtaking, passing, skunking, steaming past, accelerating past, leaving in the dust, has [opponent] eating his horse’s mud, rushing past, rolling past, leaving in his/her wake, running past, on the ascent, soaring past, flying past, cruising past, storming past, lapping the field, sweeping by, going past, passing, vanquishing, pulverizing, smashing, rolling over, exploding past, inundating, crushing, smothering, murdering, killing, rolling over, running over, causing a hemorrhage, expanding his lead, shooting past, increasing his lead, putting distance between, popularity reaching a crescendo, jumping over, vaulting over, vaulting by, leaping over, enhancing his lead, expanding his margin, your grandmother's underpants ([just checking if you're still reading] rising, spurting past, strengthening his position, emerging on top, spurting ahead, flooding the opponent, steamrolling, flushing the opponent down the tubes, rising on a swell, etc. and etc.