There is a chance for either, a follower to be available for the Amdusias crusade, or, two followers to be available in a single darkwood crusade. This means that you can get 7 followers, and unlock Hekets door, before you beat Leshy, and that means you can defeat Leshy with level 4 weapons instead of level 1, through levelling up. I believe that was the reason it was faster, but I hope I can get it under 55 minutes in the future!

I also used forced weapons for gauntlet, and partial of the way through, turned off time for crusades so I did not need to worry about food and sleeping