Finally! After 24 tries of about 2 hours each, I managed to beat my previous record (of which I had no video). This required a lot more planning, training, and patience than I had anticipated.

I died 3 times in a row after the Boss 4: the Defender Round death had small time cost; but the deaths at the Retro Film Round and the short Mob Round (5 lives only) did cost me quite some time and speed. Despite that, the rest of the run was considerably fast; to the point where I managed to get gold on some segments (not easy after 24 tries).

At the end of some rounds I lost lives on purpose to reduce the speed multiplier. This was part of my strategy; I did it immediately before very difficult rounds, to prevent dying afterwards. It took me some time to memorize and practice the rounds which I had to end with only 1-life-left.

There's still some room for improvement; by perfecting this technique, it's possible to have a deathless run, which I believe would allow for a sub 1h46m record.

Highlights: 9:29 - Almost perfect Mob Round @ 166% speed 14:05 - Reached this run's fastest speed 194% (Boss 2) 19:03 - Impressively fast Smash round @ 184% speed 34:36 - Impressively fast Mob Round @ 188% speed 37:18 - 2 deaths in a row :( Defender Round & Retro Film Round 43:03 - Another death :( 5-life Mob Round 52:22 - Almost perfect Mob Round @ 167% speed 1:04:46 - Dangerous Thunderstorm Round @ 155% speed 1:19:20 - Impressively fast Mob Round @ 161% speed 1:39:03 - PERFECT Nunchaku Round @ 152% speed 1:45:26 - Impressively fast Light Sword Round @ 152% speed