Can't say I've ever run into that bug before. So, the races do not align like I thought? Well, I guess I've got some runs to do.
I'll need to check to make sure the ordering is correct before submitting times, should be able to look into it tonight.
I don't think I'm communicating my point well, so I'll give a worked example using my WR run.
I finished the hard mode run in 1:29:04. This was all tracks forward->pocket->reverse->reverse pocket.
Medium is all the tracks forward->pocket. So the first ~half of hard is just the medium game run.
I'm suggesting that I can stop a timer there and submit the run as a medium game run as well as the full run as a hard run. This would give me a time of 43:54 for the medium run. This is consistent with the timing rules for the category with the exception that I'm playing a harder difficulty, which is a disadvantage in the category and shouldn't be a problem.
The easy run can similarly be derived giving me a time in that category of 16:46. [Assuming it ends after the lost ruins, I haven't played in years and I don't really remember. But I'm planning on playing again].
Because of the difficulty shifts, running a shorter category should be easier and should produce better times, but I don't think it would be a problem to allow the harder runs to submit times to the shorter categories.
Would it be reasonable to retroactively apply timing from the longer runs to the shorter categories? The longer categories medium and hard include the other categories as part of their run. So if I ran medium and my time for the first half beats the easy time, should it apply?
There is only one difference in play, and that's AI strength. This should be a disadvantage though, and make runs of just easy/medium typically faster than medium/hard.
The reason I'm suggesting this is that it would help fill out the categories for a less run game, and stop the first run of easy/medium anyone does from being an automatic record. They should at least learn the game a bit.